Manitoba Hydro and the Whistleblower - from our Legislative Committee meeting Monday March 8

Curiously, Manitoba Hydro has been following the whistleblower's recommendations very precisely, even while discrediting her.

An email, now available from the Whistleblower to the CEO of Manitoba Hydro on September 8, 2008 lays out precisely her recommendations for the operation of Lake Winnipeg as a reservoir for Manitoba Hydro. In her email, she shows with her model the critical importance of having levels at or very close to 713.7 feet for Lake Winnipeg in March before the spring run off. The email is available at http://www.hydro.mb.ca/corporate/related_exhibits/48a.pdf

In the two years since Manitoba Hydro, even while publicly discrediting the whistleblower, has operated on Lake Winnipeg precisely as the whistleblower recommended with levels of 713.76 feet in March 2009, and 713.6 feet in March 2010.

The whistleblower, in her email to Bob Brennan, Manitoba Hydro’s President and CEO, provides graphs and an explanation of why keeping Lake Winnipeg at this level in March is optimum for power generation. She explains that below a level of 712.9 feet in March, the increase of financial risk to Manitoba Hydro from a drought increases dramatically. She also provides evidence that in 2003-2004, when Manitoba Hydro lost about half a billion dollars as a result of the drought, the loss may have occurred because Manitoba Hydro was at that time letting the water level decrease too low in March (it went down to 712.5 in March 2003). She argues that Manitoba Hydro could have made money had it taken the optimum approach to keep the level in March 2003 at a higher level.

While CEO Brennan would not acknowledge at Legislative Committee Monday night that Manitoba Hydro lost money because it did not operate optimally in 2003/04, the fact that levels in 2009 and 2010 have been kept very close to the Whistleblower’s recommendations suggest Manitoba Hydro has learned from the experience in 2003/04, and may now be planning to use 713.7 in March as its benchmark for operating dams which control levels on Lake Winnipeg. If this is the case, then Manitoba Hydro should tell all Manitobans its plans for maintaining water levels on Lake Winnipeg as this has important implications for residents on the shores of our largest lake. Residents of Manitoba will I believe accept that this is the critical level to have Lake Winnipeg in the spring, if it is clear, as the Whistleblower suggests, that lower levels could be associated with huge losses to Manitoba Hydro as happened in 2003/04. However, keeping the lake at this level is spring does have implications for levels the rest of the year, and people in Manitoba need to know what is being done so we are all informed and prepared.