Energy Probe

The idea that Manitoba Hydro might sell electricity to Manitobans at something like a market price rather at cost and use the extra money to reposition the provincial economy has long been heresy, seldom spoken or raised publicly outside the editorial pages of this newspaper. The taboo, however, was broken in a significant way on Thursday.

If you listen carefully, humming deep within the sound of crystal clear water rushing through the pristine wilderness of northern Manitoba is the faint echo of a fortune to be made.

It is the sound, economists and energy experts agree, of Manitoba's black gold.

"Manitoba Hydro is a huge opportunity for Manitoba," says Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based environmental think tank. "I think you're looking at a wonderful future."

Winnipeg Free Press In an effort to shield consumers from fluctuating natural gas prices, the Manitoba Public Utilities Board has inadvertently created a trap for householders that could add as much as $10 million to the gas bills of consumers.

Winnipeg Free Press  

Last month's federal budget renewed one of Canada's most sacred policy cows – our $10-billion equalization program – for another five years. The first of a three-part series looks at how equalization locks "have-not" provinces into enormous welfare traps.

A new analysis by Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based think tank, shows that each of us uses two and a half times more electricity than the average person in other developed countries. Adams is also proposing a unique method of solving the problem, a distribution model called tradable electricity permits.

Meeting for policy experts
Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Date: July 10, 2003
Place: Oxford Conference Room, Main floor
Trizec Building, Portage and Main, Winnipeg
Time: 2:00 P.M. to 3:30 P.M.

Guest Speaker: Tom Adams, Executive Director, Energy Probe

Click here to watch Newsworld's Mark Kelley speak with Tom Adams, Executive Director of Energy Probe, about rising heating costs. (Click here for RealPlayer)

With winter barely underway, some people on the Prairies have been blasted with a bitterly harsh lesson in the economics of heating their homes.

Energy Probe's Prefiled Evidence in Manitoba Public
Utilities Board June 1996 Inquiry into the Future Role
of Centra Gas Manitoba

Separating Gas Merchant from Distribution Functions in Manitoba
Pre-filed Testimony on Behalf of Energy Probe

Thomas Adams Senior Consultant Borealis Energy Research Association

Presented to the Manitoba Public Utilities Board

Regarding

Provincial political leaders are mired in the past when it comes to the debate over Manitoba Hydro – and it could end up costing Manitobans a fortune, according to an Ontario energy expert.