This article was published on May 29, 2021 in the Winnipeg Free Press by Sarah Laurenuik https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/greenpage/power-failure-future-shock-574517752.html The lights are on, but Manitoba Hydro isn’t answering the door to offer clarity on greener power plans Flying above the coast of Hudson Bay west of Churchill, in the furthest northern reaches of Manitoba, you pass over...Continue Reading
In May 2021, a series of billboards and transit shelter ads in Winnipeg address Sarah Guillemard, MLA for Fort Richmond, stating: “MLA Sarah Guillemard, Don’t let Hydro destroy South Indian Lake.” The locations are: Pembina Hwy and Killarney (ES, ES, photo free for use) and a digital billboard across from Polo Park . Almost 50,000 have signed a Change.org petition (change.org/HydroImpacted)...Continue Reading
Thursday, Minister of Conservation and Climate Sarah Guillemard signed off on a permit that grants Manitoba Hydro a permanent licence to manipulate the Churchill River within the operating parameters laid out on temporary terms decades ago. Operation of the Churchill River Diversion began in 1976, on an interim licence issued under the Water Power Act....Continue Reading
Also OKs Lake Winnipeg regulation; projects have been controversial since created in1970s Manitoba Conservation and Climate Minister Sarah Guillemard says she will not hesitate to impose further conditions on Hydro in the future in order to operate the two projects. (Ian Froese/CBC) The provincial government has issued licences with new operational terms to Manitoba Hydro...Continue Reading
Manitoba Conservation and Climate advises that following Crown-Indigenous consultation processes, final licences have been issued to Manitoba Hydro for the Churchill River Diversion, Lake Winnipeg Regulation and Jenpeg Generating Station. Built in the 1970s, the projects have been operational since their initial development, including the Augmented Flow Program, which has been renewed annually since 1986....Continue Reading
Two Manitoba First Nations are asking the provincial government to hold off on granting a final licence to Manitoba Hydro’s Churchill River Diversion until their concerns are addressed. The Churchill River Diversion, which has been functional since 1976, brings more water to Hydro’s generating station on the lower Nelson River, which is helpful for power...Continue Reading
Manitoba Conservation and Climate issued final licences for Manitoba Hydro’s Churchill River diversion and Lake Winnipeg regulation and the Jenpeg generating station May 13, more than four decades after the projects were completed and put into service. Until today, Hydro was operating them with interim licence that had to be renewed annually. Additional conditions have...Continue Reading
O-Pipon-Na-Piwin and Tataskweyak Cree Nations are calling for improved consultations on the potential for a Final Licence on the Churchill River Diversion and the end of the Augmented Flow Program, which they say has devastated their fisheries. Manitoba Hydro has been operating on annual interim licences since the project was completed in 1977 and the...Continue Reading
A Change.org petition and public advertisements in Winnipeg are being employed by Northern Manitobans concerned about Manitoba Hydro getting a final licence for the Churchill River Diversion (CRD). Constructed in the early to mid-1970s to redirect water from the Churchill River system into the Nelson River system in order to power the Crown corporation’s hydroelectric...Continue Reading
A billboard in Winnipeg’s Fort Richmond area calls on Manitoba’s environment minister to take action on what advocates say is a decades-long problem with environmental degradation caused by a Manitoba Hydro diversion program. The billboard points to an online petition asking the Conservation Minister Sarah Guillemard — the MLA for Fort Richmond — to decline a permanent licence request for Manitoba Hydro’s...Continue Reading
