The confusing regulatory mess

A whistleblower complaint got a little messy Tuesday morning as lawyers argued about whether Manitobans should pay higher power rates while things get sorted out.

Manitoba Hydro did ask the Public Utilities Board for a 2.9 per cent rate hike effective April 1. But it’s clear the “mega-hearing” needed to determine whether Hydro deserves a rate increase will take months longer than that, especially if the whistleblower’s concerns over Hydro’s financial and power supply risks spark an entirely separate hearing.

In the meantime, the PUB is considering whether Hydro needs more money from homeowners now – perhaps a 2.9 per cent hike, or something less than that.

But some intervenors at Tuesday’s hearing said Hydro shouldn’t be rewarded for stalling the regulatory process and releasing only a trickle of documents. The province’s big corporate power users said giving Hydro a rate hike without a real hearing would set an “injurious and unprincipled precedent.”

Whistleblower asks Manitoba Hydro about $160 million

Hydro argued it needed modest and regular rate hikes to maintain its good financial picture.

Meanwhile, at the downtown courthouse, Hydro began an appeal to force the whistleblower to hand over her reports to KPMG, another consulting firm Hydro has hired to test the whistleblower’s findings that Hydro could face bankruptcy and blackouts.

Yet another hearing is likely later this week to discuss a ban on publication.