Albertans misled on power lines

Dr. Ted Morton, MLA Foothills-Rocky View, admitted he misled Albertans on the real reason the government wanted to build transmission lines in this province.

The MLA said that he now opposes Bill 50 and the overbuild that his PC government declared necessary and that he previously defended. He spoke to media at the Edmonton Legislature on May 17 to explain his change of mind.

PC leadership candidate and former finance minister, Morton told Calgary Herald reporters that he believes an independent panel should determine if $6 billion of the proposed infrastructure approved by cabinet under Bill 50, should proceed. "Needs assessment in particular requires a high degree of expertise and also independence and impartiality," Morton told the Herald. "Let's just say cabinet certainly doesn't have the expertise."

The government said the new lines needed to be built because present lines were aged and needed to be upgraded for Albertans. The truth is that the government wanted the lines to be built for export reasons, as first reported in the Camrose Booster in the March 22 issue.

Two other PC leadership hopefuls, Gary Mar and Alison Redford, also said they can't support Bill 50 as is.

Morton first came clean when both the NDP and Wildrose Party secured proof of documents showing the PC government was lying to Albertans.
He didn’t name names, but suggested several PC caucus members also expressed opposition to Bill 50 behind closed doors in caucus and at other forums. However, none of them – including Morton – stood up in support of Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson’s private member's motion to repeal Bill 50, which was debated in the Legislature in April.

According to the Wildrose Party in a prepared statement, Dr. Morton confirmed that the twin DC lines between Edmonton and Calgary are wrong because of emerging local generation options, the undue costs they present to taxpayers for construction and operation, and the devastating impacts they will have on Alberta’s economic competitiveness by driving up the cost of doing business. It was suggested by people at a Daysland meeting in late February, that the costs could be between three and eight times the amount the government was telling the public.

Both the NDP and Wildrose parties, as well as many residents in the area east and north of Camrose, pushed for Bill 50 to be repealed and replaced with an independent needs assessment. The government didn't back down until proof was provided that it was working on exports.

Alberta's NDP opposition leader Brian Mason said a WikiLeaks cable is evidence the Tories have misled Albertans and are in fact building massive power transmission projects to export electricity to the United States.

“The PCs swore to Albertans that massive power line projects – set to cost Alberta households hundreds of dollars per year – had nothing to do with exporting power. This cable shows the Tories have been misleading Albertans about their intentions, telling the public one thing and then promoting exports to U.S. diplomats,” said Mason at a press conference. “Albertans should not be on the hook for $13 billion of lines not even meant to be used by Albertans.”

The NDP said the 2003 diplomatic cable details how former energy minister Murray Smith and a group of oil industry representatives made sure United States officials were aware of the massive export potential of electricity generated in Alberta’s oil sands. “Albertans see this as a promising issue for future provincial-state, Washington-Ottawa and regulator to regulator coordination,” reads the leak.

A separate July 2009 public presentation from TransCanada Corp. clearly maps how the Northern Lights HVDC project would tie into large transmission projects already proposed to export power.

“The PCs need to come clean with Albertans about how much they will be asked to pay just so power companies can profit,” Mason said. “Clearly electricity deregulation serves power companies first, and Albertans last.”

Leaked correspondence between Alberta and the United States that discusses exporting Alberta’s electricity south of the border strongly suggest the Alberta government has misled Albertans on the true reason for its planned $16 billion upgrade to the transmission system.

“These documents show this government’s sales job on the need for these transmission lines to be a complete fraud,” Wildrose leader Danielle Smith said. “If they want to have a debate about exporting electricity, let’s have that debate. Instead, they’ve deliberately and repeatedly deceived Albertans by trying to convince them they need to pay for these upgrades for their own good. We need to go back to the drawing board immediately to determine Alberta’s true transmission needs."

The overbuild was declared critical infrastructure under Bill 50 – the Electric Statutes Amendment Act, which allows such a designation to be applied to infrastructure projects without a needs assessment.