Letters, Aug. 6

Hydro debt is good debt

Re: It may be frustrating, but it’s necessary (Editorial, July 29)

As the former senior vice-president and chief financial officer for Manitoba Hydro, I cringe whenever I see negative references in the media and elsewhere regarding Manitoba Hydro’s long-term debt.

What’s missing from such references (the most recent being the July 29 editorial in which it’s stated that “… capital missteps have helped saddle the utility with $25.34 billion in debt”) is that Hydro’s debt is totally offset by valuable revenue-producing assets and that all related debt will be fully repaid over the productive lives of those assets.

Electricity and natural gas rates, approved by the Public Utilities Board, are structured to recover Hydro’s day-to-day operating, maintenance and administrative (OM&A) expenses as well as all debt servicing (interest) and debt repayment (principal) costs. Rather than being a burden on future generations, as debt is so often and incorrectly characterized, ratepayers will continue to reap the benefits of Hydro’s investments in capital assets for generations to come.

Unlike investor-owned, privatized corporations, as a crown-owned utility Manitoba Hydro can’t raise capital by issuing shares to investors seeking dividend payments and capital appreciation. However, since its inception, Manitoba Hydro has successfully accessed the bond market for low-cost debt financing to fund its capital programs. In the absence of debt financing, it would not have been possible to develop the robust hydraulic generation and transmission system that Manitoba enjoys today. The alternative would have been coal and natural gas generation with electricity rates similar to those in Alberta and Saskatchewan (significantly higher than electricity rates in Manitoba).

The concept of good debt versus bad debt can be summarized as follows: Good debt is appropriate and generally necessary to construct and acquire assets with service lives extending beyond one year. Most assets of Manitoba Hydro extend for 50 years or longer. Bad debt is borrowing that is incurred to fund current-year operations (OM&A).

Manitoba Hydro never incurs bad debt. Any borrowing that is required to fund deficits resulting from current operations including the cost of drought and other unforeseen events, is funded from retained earnings, which currently exceed $3 billion. The impacts of drought on financial results are a normal consequence of hydraulic utility operations and are fully recognized in the financial plans of the utility (hence the need to have adequate retained earnings to manage drought and other risks).

Manitoba’s electricity consumers should not be concerned about the magnitude of Manitoba Hydro’s debt. All existing debt is self-sustaining and is being repaid through electricity rates approved in accordance with sound cost-of-service principles. All debt was prudently incurred to build Manitoba Hydro’s exceptionally strong, resilient, sustainable and low-cost generation, transmission and distribution system. There should be no doubt about it — Manitoba Hydro’s debt is good debt.

Vince Warden, Winnipeg

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Defining context

Re: Palestinian Canadian stories belong (Think Tank, Aug. 1)

It is deeply disturbing how Isha Khan, the chief executive officer of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, continually refuses to address the specific criticisms of the Nakba exhibit.

As epitomized by the headline of her op-ed, she argues “Palestinian Canadian stories belong”. To be absolutely clear, almost all critics, including me, agree that this is true, and Palestinian stories should be told. Once again, she deflects from the issues and refuses to address the real concerns, which are the false depiction of historical events and the omission of important facts from the exhibit.

These omissions seem clearly designed to push an ideological agenda. Ms. Khan’s steadfast unwillingness to acknowledge the real criticisms and rectify the historical omissions, lack of balance, and lack of context is wholly unbecoming of the CEO of a national federal museum that should be dedicated to truth and honesty. Repeating these accusations only serves to foment discord and mistrust between Jews and Palestinians, which is the exact opposite of what someone in her position should be doing. Critics are only demanding accuracy and balance through the addition of a minor amount of content that could easily have been included by now.

My concerns about the lack of balance have also been noted by the Minister of Culture and Identity Marc Miller and by the Auditor General of Canada, Karen Hogan. In the last report by the AG’s office, they criticize the CMHR‘s weaknesses in exhibit accuracy, saying: “without rigorous systems and practices to ensure accuracy and balance … errors and bias could be introduced to exhibits which could adversely affect the corporation’s reputation and be costly to correct after the fact.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Gail Asper, Winnipeg

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Clarification: A letter to the editor in the Aug. 6 edition of the Free Press indicated that the federal auditor-general criticized the Canadian Museum for Human Rights for having had deficiencies in managing its exhibitions, saying, “without rigorous systems and practices to ensure accuracy and balance … errors and bias could be introduced to exhibits which could adversely affect the corporation’s reputation and be costly to correct after the fact.”

The report in question was done in 2017 and released publicly in 2018, and at the time, the museum agreed with the findings and listed a series of steps it would take to address the issue.

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Critics of the Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, which details the Palestinian experience since 1948, must not have visited the museum lately.

They argue that the exhibit fails to place the Nakba in its historical context, and that the exhibit undermines or devalues the history of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

For those who have not visited lately, let me briefly describe how your visit will proceed: the Nakba exhibit is a small exhibit on Level 5 of the museum. It provides two paragraphs with a brief history of the Palestinian experience since 1948 including the events of Oct. 7, 2023 (the Hamas attack on Israel), and subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, as well as five artifacts and videos of Palestinian Canadians who experienced the Nakba.

What critics fail to note is that to get there, you must walk through Level 4, an entire floor of the museum which is dedicated to the Holocaust. It is that much more painful and poignant, after experiencing the visit through the Holocaust exhibit, to experience the Palestinian exhibit.

I would encourage all critics of the exhibit and the museum, including Gail Asper, to walk through the museum as it has been thoughtfully curated. I would be surprised if they did not recognize the profound and overwhelming recognition that more than one people can (and have) experienced catastrophe.

The museum’s point is that it is our job to hold our governments and societies to account — it is our responsibility to do better by facing the hard truths of the past to create better futures.

Devin Morrow, Winnipeg

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Trump envoy lashes out

Re: U.S. antisemitism envoy to Canada: ‘You need to do better’ (Aug. 5)

I find it fascinating that an envoy of U.S. President Trump has the audacity to tell us what to do. Don’t get me wrong — hate in all its forms is unacceptable but perhaps Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun needs to look in the (United States’) mirror.

According to the American Jewish Committee (in its 2025 State of Antisemitism report): “91 per cent of American Jews say they feel less safe as a Jewish person in the United States due to violent attacks in the past year …”

There is hate all around us, and we have our fair share of it — but we all have a role to play when it comes to defeating it.

Perhaps we have the opportunity to look in our mirror and start by asking “Why are people so angry?”

Debbie Ristimaki, Winnipeg