The crews who built the Manitoba to Minnesota Transmission Line are thanking La Broquerie and the surrounding municipalities for being such good neighbors.

A spokesperson for Valard Construction says his company is used to receiving some backlash for their work, however, as they moved through the RMs of Ste. Anne, Piney, and Stuartburn they were met with unusual hospitality.

“We work all over the country and a lot of people don’t appreciate powerline construction, but all of the municipalities in this region were great to deal with,” he notes. “Sure there were a few minor issues here and there, but everyone was very neighborly, and we are really thankful for their patience.”

Perhaps the region most impacted by Valard crews was the RM of La Broquerie where the project's work camp was based out of. Valard calls the municipality an “excellent host” and says they too were nothing but neighborly. La Broquerie Reeve Lewis Weiss says the feeling was reciprocal.

“I spoke to many of the workers over the months they were here and they were always friendly, they had good attitudes, and they were very easy to work with.”

Weiss says the presence of so many additional workers in the area was also good for the economy. Their absence will be drawing roughly 200 customers away from local businesses and back to their homes in Calgary. Though their business will be missed the reeve says he is looking forward to traffic volumes returning to normal levels in his municipality.

With the transmission line project now entirely completed, Valard will begin the slow process of removing their camp from the premises and restoring, reseeding, and reshaping any land that they impacted during the building process.

Any equipment remaining along the powerline’s right of way will be left there until the summer when municipal roads dry up and the weight restrictions are lifted. Valard says the cleanup process will happen in stages throughout the next few months but, by the end of the season, very few indicators of their presence should be visible... that is aside from a massive power line spanning across the Canadian-American border.