New Manitoba energy plan envisions wind farms built with Indigenous partners

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Peggy

Manitoba’s new energy plan calls for the construction of 600 megawatts of wind power, an exploration of neighbourhood-scale geothermal heating systems in new subdivisions, and discounted household electricity rates at off-peak hours once “smart meters” are more widely used.

The 17-page energy plan, published by the province Friday, also repeats NDP government promises to install 5,000 heat pumps and offer consumers rebates for electric cars.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is touting the plan as a means of keeping energy rates affordable, but critics are assailing the document as a high-level vision statement that does not include hard targets for reducing carbon emissions, specific timelines for rolling out new programs or cost projections of any sort.

The most notable aspect of the energy program is the wind farms, to be built in partnership with Indigenous governments who will be invited to invest in new turbine systems through a loan-guarantee program the Kinew government plans to roll out next year.

“We’ve put forward a plan here that proposes a new way forward of building new capacity, specifically through nation-to-nation partnerships with Indigenous nations here in Manitoba, to ensure that we can keep energy rates as low as possible,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala said at a Friday news conference.

The creation of 600 megawatts of new wind power would nearly quadruple the province’s existing wind-generating capacity.

The energy plan also calls for the province to explore the idea of installing neighbourhood-scale geothermal heating systems in new subdivisions as an alternative to burying new natural gas lines.

Clean energy advocates have been pushing district-scale geothermal systems as a more energy-efficient alternative to heat pumps in the cold Manitoban climate.

The plan also envisions the potential for discounted hydro rates during off-peak hours, something Kinew’s NDP characterized as “surge pricing” after the former Progressive Conservative government raised the idea in July 2023 when it presented the “energy roadmap” that served as a predecessor to the new energy policy.

The plan also calls for investments in Manitoba Hydro’s existing infrastructure, but does not quantify the cost of maintenance and repairs the Crown corporation has previously estimated in the billions.

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Speaking to reporters at PTI Transformers, a manufacturing facility in Winnipeg’s Fort Garry area, Kinew declined to say how Manitoba Hydro will balance paying for those repairs, the further billions required to finance new electrical generating capacity, and the need to prevent Hydro’s $25-billion net debt from spiralling upward, while also meeting his desire to freeze Manitoba Hydro rates.

“We have a great finance minister. That’s the first answer, and then the second answer is we have a great team of political staff behind him,” Kinew said when asked about the competing demands on Hydro. “Third off, we’re working hard for all the people in the room.”

People in suits standing before people in hardhats. — Manitoba Finance Minister Adrien Sala, Premier Wab Kinew and Environment Minister Tracy Schmidt greet workers at PTI Transformers in Winnipeg on Friday. (Bartley Kives/CBC)

The new energy plan does concede Manitoba will continue to rely on oil and natural gas to meet most of the province’s electricity needs before cleaner sources of energy are more widely available.

But unlike the PC government’s energy roadmap, the NDP’s energy plan makes no mention of the need to double or triple Hydro’s generating capacity from its existing 6,100 megawatts.

Critics said they were hoping to see more concrete plans from the Kinew government at a time when consumers and industries are moving away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy.

“People are being encouraged to move to electrification in their homes, but we are not doing what we need to do to prioritize bringing enough energy and electricity into our province to make that happen,” said Bethany Daman, a spokesperson for Manitoba’s Climate Action Team, a coalition of environmental organizations.

“At what point is our province actually going to come forward with a plan that will actually push us to the next step?”

A woman in a yellow sweater standing outside. — Bethany Daman of Manitoba’s Climate Action Team said the new provincial energy plan lacks detail. (Randall Mackenzie/CBC)

Nicholas Rivers, a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, compared the energy plan to a visioning statement.

“This plan looks like it was written in the 1990s to me. It’s really short on details, like we’re just hearing about climate change for the first time,” said Rivers, whose research focuses on the economic evaluation of environmental policies.

“I think there’s got to be a lot more push to accelerate action.”

Manitoba’s Official Opposition also criticized the plan for lacking timelines and cost projections.

Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Wayne Ewasko said he is not sure Manitoba voters will trust the NDP to manage Hydro after the cost overruns on megaprojects procured a decade ago by Greg Selinger’s NDP government.

Kinew said more details will be worked out when Manitoba Hydro develops a long-awaited plan to build up its generating capacity.

While Kinew and Sala are pushing for wind farms to provide that capacity, Hydro is required by legislation to pursue the least expensive option, which could be temporary power plants fired by natural gas.

Sala would not rule out new gas plants, even as he has vowed in the past to pursue other options first.