Bipole costs have soared: CTF
Last Updated: Monday, January 31, 2011 | 11:35 AM CST .CBC News
The west side Bipole route has been a source of controversy since the NDP government announced it in 2007. (CBC)
A leaked document suggests the cost of a planned Manitoba Hydro transmission line down the west side of Lake Winnipeg may be nearly double the original estimate.
The line, which is to bring hydro power from the north, was originally pegged in 2007 to cost $2.2 billion. But an internal Hydro document obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) says the cost is now forecast to be $4.1 billion.
Federation spokesman Colin Craig says it's time for the Crown corporation and the Manitoba government to come clean with the public and admit that the price tag has gone up.
“The government will try and spin this by saying the increased cost is related to this that or the other thing,” CTF prairie director Colin Craig stated in a news release.
“The bottom line is that internal Hydro documents show the project’s cost has exploded from $2.2 billion to $4.1 billion. Manitobans simply can’t afford the extra $1 billion it will cost to build a much longer line down the west side of the province.”
Hydro president Bob Brennan says the document is only a preliminary estimate and outside consultants have been brought in to give an official tally.
Brennan says the price tag has probably risen, primarily due to rising construction costs for converter stations.
Craig and the CTF released a copy of the leaked document, which the federation received in a brown envelope.
The envelope was unmarked except for an attached note advising Craig that a column he wrote for the Winnipeg Sun, titled Bipole a Ticking Time Bomb, was "right on the mark."
Controversial route
The west side route has been a source of controversy since the NDP government announced it in 2007.
Originally, Manitoba Hydro chose a route on the east side of the province but the government stepped in to overrule those plans, saying a west side route will preserve a boreal forest on the east side.
The province is seeking to have that forest area, containing 40,000 square kilometres of trees, rivers, lakes and wetlands spread across the Canadian shield and straddling the Manitoba-Ontario border, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.
That meant the power line would cost an extra $640 million because the western route is 50 per cent longer.
But it also has the advantage of having the least impact on agricultural land, avoids National and Provincial Parks, and First Nation reserve lands, the government has said.
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