A number of residents in the Rural Municipality of Ste. Anne and La Broquerie are opposing the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project.

Scott Powell, Public Affairs Manager with Manitoba Hydro explains they take the concerns from customers and land owners seriously because in the end they don't like impacting those individuals.  He says not everyone is going to be totally thrilled when constructing a long linear piece of infrastructure such as a transmission line, pipeline, flood-way or highway because, more often than not, it's going to be impacting someone at some point.

Powell adds to minimize the impacts they have been holding public consultations and gathering input.

"We take our route very seriously.  [That's why] we do extensive public engagements with stake holders in the areas where we're looking at putting these lines.  We take a huge number of factors into account before we develop a preferred route.  Not only impacts on people and communities but also on the environment.  There's engineering parameters we have to follow, energy security parameters, there's operational requirements, maintenance and cost.  All of these factors get put into the mix."

He says, for example, if a section of the line is affecting one individual so they move it and it's now affecting four people, is that really fair?  Powell notes through the public consultations they take in comments, digest them and try to minimize the impacts and reflect all stakeholder inputs equally through the line routing process.

Powell explains the Manitoba-Minnesota Transmission Project is crucial in a number of ways.

"First it allows us to meet our obligations under an export contract we have with Minnesota Power and export more energy to the U.S.  That revenue comes back into Manitoba Hydro and helps keep our rates low for all Manitobans.  Just as importantly as exporting energy, the line provides another avenue by which we can import power in times of low water or during other emergencies which will help improve the energy security and reliability of our system for all Manitoba Hydro rate payers.  So that's a crucial component of it as well."

Powell notes the project will be filed with both Provincial and Federal Governments this summer, at which time there may be another public hearing for those who wish to voice concerns.  Afterwards Manitoba Hydro will be able to receive their environmental licences and permits to begin construction on the line.