A gift of salvaged wood from Manitoba Hydro to municipalities affected by the construction of their new transmission line may be causing more stress than it is worth.

In recent weeks and months, Manitoba Hydro has cleared forest to make way for the novel Manitoba to Minnesota Transmission Line, the leftover wood is being offered to the impacted regions. In the company’s Environmental Impact Statement they noted they would “seek to facilitate the use of vegetation cleared from the right-of-way.” This is the follow-through on that promise.

The Piney wood site is located at the Menisino Dump (photo credit: Martin Van Osch).When Piney Chief Administrative Officer Martin Van Osch first learned of the free timber, he was grateful. However, he says administering the resource between ratepayers has proved more difficult than anticipated.

“We have various interest groups within the municipality that would like to gain access to this timber and these various interest group have differing goals. We have commercial interests, private interests, indigenous peoples that may have an interest, and the challenge with any government is finding the best model that achieves the best benefit to the community.”

Piney Council has decided to give away the wood at an administrative cost of 10 dollars per cord, but Van Osch says the solution has not pleased everyone equally. He notes the RM still gets daily phone calls from residents who feel they know how the resource could be better used. Even though Council has officially made this precarious decision, Piney is not out of the woods yet.

“The municipality is responsible for clearing the site where the wood was stationed, we are responsible to manage the permits, we are responsible to ensure that load slips are completed accurately, and we have to have somebody supervise the facility while people are cutting so there are staffing costs as well,” lists Van Osch.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to provide some benefit to our community members,” he stresses, but the free timber certainly does not come without a price.

Stuartburn CAO Lucie Maynard says her RM has experienced similar conflict over their allotted wood. In their jurisdiction, each household is permitted 10 cords. Many feel that cap is not enough.

“For the most part it's been good,” says Maynard, “but some people want more wood then we were allowing per household, and others are disappointed that they didn’t get their permits in time.”

Stuartburn too is letting go of each cord of wood at a 10 dollar fee and Maynard says they also share Piney’s challenges.

“It is turning out to be a bit more work than we were expecting,” she admits.

Both Maynard and Van Osch say the management of the situation has proved trickier and more costly than expected. The Piney wood site is at the Menisino Dump, Stuartburn wood sites are located in Lonesand and Sundown.

The RMs of Ste. Anne and La Broquerie will also be recipients of salvaged timber but are less far along in the process and have not reported any friction at this point in time. 

La Broquerie plans on piling the wood on a municipal site and giving it away with no cost or limitation. CAO Anne Burns says permits need only be picked up at the municipal office. Ste. Anne, meanwhile, is looking to follow in the footsteps of Stuartburn and plans on offering 5 cords per household at that same cost of 10 dollars apiece.

A spokesperson from Manitoba Hydro says any wood that is not taken by the municipalities in question will be turned into mulch.