Energy board rules on details of Manitoba Hydro, Metis Federation agreement

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This article was published 18/06/2018 (2135 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A ruling on Tuesday by the chair of the National Energy Board panel will allow the details of the controversial agreement made between the Manitoba Metis Federation and Manitoba Hydro on the record of the licence application for the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project (MMTP).

Manitoba Hydro had filed a motion requesting that the NEB strike the submission from its record for various reasons, not least of which that the legality of the deal is about to go to a judicial review before the court.

“We have considered the motion by Manitoba Hydro (to strike the MMF submission). We have decided to deny the motion and allow the evidence on the record,” NEB panel chair Alison Scott said after lengthy presentations from Manitoba Hydro and MMF.

The NEB is holding its last week of hearings on the proposed $453-million transmission line designed to handle a long-term export deal with Minnesota Power. Although it took action to get the NEB panel to strike the MMF’s deal from the record, Manitoba Hydro has detailed mitigation and accommodation arrangements made with several First Nations as part of the thousands of pages of submissions in the NEB licence application.

The MMF’s submission came late in the proceedings in response to the NEB’s request for input “in relation to the mitigation measures proposed by Manitoba Hydro to address concerns raised regarding potential project impacts.”

Among the documents the MMF submitted was the three page “MMF-Manitoba Hydro July 2017 Agreement,” the controversial document negotiated between Manitoba Hydro and the MMF that proposed to pay the MMF a $37.5 million lump sum and then $1.5 million annually for the next 20 years.

According to the agreement, the payment was to “fully and finally address and satisfy all concerns of the Metis with respect to Existing Transmission Projects; as well as Identified Projects, which include: Bipole III, MMTP, St. Vital, LWESI and Birtle Projects; and any Future Transmission Projects undertaken by Hydro during the initial 20 years of the agreement.”

In March, Premier Brian Pallister ordered Hydro to cancel the arrangement, which was then followed by the resignation of almost the entire Manitoba Hydro board of directors. The document is now the subject of a judicial review with the MMF seeking to have a court determine whether or not it is legally binding.

But in the meantime, the MMF’s lawyer Jason Madden argued why the NEB needed to be aware of the arrangement which the Metis call an “agreement” and Manitoba Hydro and the Manitoba government refer to as a “term sheet.”

“It needs to be upheld and we are going to court to sort that out,” Madden said. “But we also want to say to the NEB that if you do issue a licence for Manitoba Hydro, there needs to be a licensing condition honouring the legally binding agreements Manitoba Hydro has with Indigenous people.”

“We submit this is a matter for Court of Queen’s Bench and Queen’s Bench alone,” said Sacha Paul, the lawyer for Manitoba Hydro who was arguing to strike the MMF’s submission from the NEB’s record.

He also argued that since the deal with the MMF concerned other Manitoba Hydro development and not just the MMTP, the subject of the current licence application, that it should not be admissible.

It’s not clear whether or not getting the agreement on the NEB’s record will have any impact on Manitoba Hydro’s licence application to the NEB.

Manitoba Hydro spokesman Scott Powell said, “It’s difficult to say (what impact it will have). Obviously we’re disappointed. As we have said in the past we do not believe this is the venue. We still don’t feel it has material importance to the MMTP process. But the NEB made a decision and we will have to move forward with that.”

The transmission line is to be built to service a 15-year deal for Manitoba Hydro to sell power to Minnesota Power, starting in 2020.

The new power line is to run to the U.S. border crossing near Piney from the Dorsey Converter Station near Rosser.

Powell said in addition to servicing that export sale, the new transmission line is also needed to enhance the reliability of the system, including more than doubling the province’s capability to import power in case of transmission emergency or drought.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca