The hearing, and how to be heard
The Public Utilities Board is reviewing how Manitoba covers its 2030 winter shortfall. You do not need standing or a lawyer to be part of that record.
What is being decided
The Manitoba Public Utilities Board is conducting a review of Manitoba Hydro's plan to meet a projected winter capacity shortfall of about 600 megawatts by 2030. The centrepiece is the Brandon dispatchable capacity project — roughly 750 MW of natural-gas combustion turbines for about $3 billion. The Board tests the need, the alternatives and the rate impact, then advises cabinet. It does not build anything itself, and it does not have the last word; it has the last public word, which is why the record matters.
How to be part of the record
You do not need standing, a lawyer, or technical expertise to be read. There are three levels of participation, and the first costs nothing but an afternoon.
- Write a letter of comment. One written letter from one Manitoban enters the official record with no coordination at all. Say who you are, what you use electricity for, and what you want the Board to test. Specific beats sweeping.
- Write to your MLA. The Board advises cabinet, and cabinet is political. An MLA who hears from constituents on a file behaves differently from one who does not.
- Stand as an intervener. Interveners file evidence, question Hydro's witnesses and argue on the record. In major proceedings the Board has awarded costs to responsible interveners. If you represent a community group, a farm organisation, a business association or a First Nation, this is the strongest seat available.
The letter builder on the Take Action page drafts all three for you, populated with the right recipient, and runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type reaches a server.
What to actually ask for
A letter that asks the Board to "reject the gas plant" is easy to set aside. A letter that asks it to test something is harder, because testing is what the Board is for. The seven requests in this filing are written to be granted:
- Head-to-head modelling of the alternatives against the gas plan before any capital certificate.
- An independent cold-weather reliability audit applying identical accreditation to every resource.
- Machine-readable cost models from both parties.
- Disclosure of interconnection headroom.
- Preservation of the North End trench option while it is still open.
- Authorisation of a measured heat pilot at the effluent-stage hub.
- Authorisation of public heat-first compute in the 10–20 kW band, not contingent on pre-cleared gates.
Where to follow it
Filings, transcripts and orders are published by the Board. The current applications page carries the live docket, and past orders show how the Board has reasoned about comparable decisions.
Current applications before the Board · Board orders
Where to go next
The rest of this filing, in the order a stranger tends to need it: what is being proposed, whether it has already been decided, whether the case for it holds, and how to be heard before 4 September 2026.