The chair of Manitoba Hydro's board of directors has come out swinging at critics of a west side transmission line.

Earlier this week, opponents of the west-side line questioned the board's silence on controversy that has been raging over whether the proposed BiPole III transmission line should be constructed down the west side of the province, or down a shorter route on the east side.

"The board, under the Crown Accountability Act, is supposed to act in the best interests of the company. They're not supposed to be ciphers, abjectly doing whatever they think the government wants from them," legal expert Bryan Schwartz said Monday.

"They're not supposed to be a policitical body. They're supposed to be exercising their best judgment in the best interest of the company. This decision does not appear to be remotely in the best interests of the company."

'We've spent a great deal of time making sure that we came to the right decision, and I have full confidence in that decision.'—Hydro chair Vic Schroeder

But Hydro chair Vic Schroeder said Tuesday that the board has spent years studying the options for the transmission line, and has concluded that the western route is the best.

As far back as 2004, management at Manitoba Hydro recommended going down the west side of the province because of strong opposition from environmentalists, many of them American, to the east-side route, Schroeder said.

But the board demanded every option for the new transmission line be studied — west, east, over Lake Winnipeg, under it — and that has happened, Schroeder said Tuesday.

"We've gone far beyond what even management was recommending," he said.

"We've gone outside for expertise. We've insisted on additional studies. We've insisted on clarification from government. We've spent a great deal of time making sure that we came to the right decision, and I have full confidence in that decision."

Schroeder adds that going down the west side means Manitoba's international reputation and Hydro's relationship with major customers south of the border will remain secure.

"The players with the big money who were opposing us on the east side are with us on the west side," he said.
 
Schroeder insists building on the west side is in the long-term interests of the corporation and the province, no matter what the critics say.

Provincial officials announced in September that BiPole III, Manitoba Hydro's third high-voltage, direct-current transmission line, will run west of Lake Manitoba, rather than cutting a shorter route through boreal forest on the east side of Lake Winnipeg.

Hydro may forfeit millions

The route down the western side of the province is longer and will cost hundreds of millions more to build, and it's estimated Manitoba Hydro will forfeit an additional hundreds of millions of dollars in power lost as the electricity makes the longer journey south.

The precise route for the $2-billion line will be determined after an environmental, design and public consultation process that is expected to take several years.

About three-quarters of Manitoba Hydro's electricity production is currently supplied through two transmission lines that run from Gillam to Winnipeg through the Interlake area, between the province's two large lakes.

Once complete, BiPole III will provide a backup to those lines and carry power from planned generating stations to southern Manitoba and export markets.