Kinew’s power move not exactly as presented

Opinion

This is the way to do it. Unable to trust what’s going on with a former close trading partner, the government of Manitoba is going to sell Manitoba power in Canada — even if it means lower revenues than it might be able to get from markets in the United States.

Except, that’s not a completely fair representation of what just happened.

Premier Wab Kinew announced Monday that he was ordering Manitoba Hydro to not renew a pair of power deals with Northern States Power, instead using the power inside Manitoba and for sales to other Canadian utilities — particularly to Nunavut and other Western provinces.

“We’ve decided, as Canadians and Manitobans, we are going to use that power to build up our own economy here at home,” Kinew said as he signed orders in council directing the Crown utility not to renew two contracts for up to 500 megawatts of power that are set to expire next month.

The idea is a good one: redirecting power into the Canadian market, instead of into a U.S. market that’s now contentious because of President Donald Trump’s penchant for on-again, off-again tariffs. The more use we can make of locally generated power in Canada, the better for the Canadian economy as a whole.

“Everyone’s been watching what’s happening across the country and thinking a lot about Canadian sovereignty,” Kinew said at a midday news conference Monday. “Manitoba has a wealth of hydroelectric resources and we should use them as a province to light up the North, to light up Western Canada and to help us build trade corridors. We’re looking for opportunities to make our economy stronger right across the True North, strong and free.”

There is, of course, always the question of optics, and perhaps, more specifically, theatrics: was Monday’s announcement more about a decision caused by Trump’s tariffs, or something that was already expected anyway?

Sadly, it’s more the latter than the former.

That’s because the end of the Northern States Power deal was already in the cards, and was publicly revealed by Manitoba Hydro almost two and a half years ago on Nov. 15, 2022, when it filed its 2023/24 and 2024/25 General Rate Application with the Public Utilities Board of Manitoba.

In that application, the utility points out that, “Manitoba Hydro is forecasting that system capacity will be required to support domestic load growth over the next 20 years and, as a result, there will be reduced generation supply available to either renew expiring dependable export contracts or to enter into new dependable export contracts.”

Which contracts were on the chopping block?

“In particular, the expiration of the Northern States Power system power sale causes a reduction in export sales beginning in 2025/26,” the application said. The loss of that sales revenue was one of the reasons Manitoba Hydro was asking the PUB for a rate increase: “This reduction in export sales revenue starting in 2025/26 is not immediately replaced by domestic revenue and as such results in reduced revenues for several years starting in 2025/26.”

There were some new facets: the province is also preparing to sign an agreement for some of that reclaimed power to flow to Nunavut through a new 150-MW, 1,200-kilometre hydro/fibre-optic link that’s to be started in 2028 and completed by 2032.

But that’s the only truly new part about the announcement, and it’s well into the future.

In other words, it looks a lot like Kinew just ordered Manitoba Hydro to do something the utility had already said it was going to do two and a half years ago, and in the process, firmly wrapped it in the Canadian flag, characterizing it all as a response to U.S. actions.

Right church, wrong politicized pew.