Bipole route debated by Selinger, McFadyen

Manitoba's premier and opposition leader faced off Friday in a hydro debate that might leave voters more confused than ever.

Premier Greg Selinger and Hugh McFadyen debated the BiPoleIII hydro transmission line for an hour on radio station CJOB. Neither politician could give a firm dollar figure for the project's cost, or the extra cost caused by the government's decision to run the line down a longer route through the west side of the province.

Selinger said the longer, more expensive line is needed to protect the boreal forest in the east.

Hydro chose a west-side route after a shorter route along the east side of Lake Winnipeg was overruled by the NDP government. A major factor was the protection of a proposed UNESCO World Heritage site in that area.

The site, which the province is still seeking to have declared, contains 40,000 square kilometres of vast boreal forest, rivers, lakes and wetlands spread across the Canadian shield and straddling the Manitoba-Ontario border.

On Thursday, the province announced that more than 8,000 square kilometres of that region was just designated as protected territory of the Poplar River First Nation.

On Friday, Selinger saidthe extra cost of a west-side Bipole route amounts to roughly a half-billion dollars in construction, plus $100 million in energy loss caused by the longer line.

McFadyen said Selinger's numbers don't include interest and other items and the extra cost is in the billions of dollars a figure Selinger says is false.

At one point, Selinger said the government has met with UNESCO people, who indicated the east-side route would threaten plans to have the area declared a world heritage site.

But when pressed for details by reporters, Selinger said the UNESCO people were actually federal government employees who are helping the province prepare its bid for UNESCO status.

The hydro line and UNESCO bid are shaping up to be a major issue for Manitoba's October 4 provincial election.