Farmers jeer, bands cheer Bipole III

Brandon Sun - ONLINE EDITION

By: Bruce Owen

Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 at 8:42 AM | Comments: 0

At one end, farmers are banding together to get Manitoba Hydro to respect property rights, while at the other, a small aboriginal community is celebrating that up to 50 of its members will soon be employed clearing land.

Such is Bipole III, the 1,400-kilometre high-voltage transmission line that is in the early stages of construction. The line, estimated two years ago to cost $3.28 billion, will run from Hydro's northern dams on the Nelson River down the west side of the province and hook south around Winnipeg to the new Riel converter station east of the city.

It's the southern end of the line that's got recent attention -- including from RCMP -- as farmers organize themselves to restrict Hydro surveyors from working on their land.

Brunkild farmer Jurgen Kohler of the BiPole III Landowner Committee said the issue isn't so much about stopping Hydro from building the new line, but to protect their valuable canola crops from devastating soil diseases. The line is to cross Kohler's land.

"They're surveying the land right now and they weren't supposed to go into the land and survey it before we have this bio-security protocol in place," Kohler said recently. "They just went ahead."

Kohler said landowners have recently teamed up with the Canadian Association of Energy and Pipeline Landowner Associations (CAEPLA) to negotiate a recognition of property rights and a bio-security protocol with Hydro.

CAEPLA is a national organization that advocates on behalf of farmers, ranchers and other rural landowners to negotiate agreements with pipeline and power-line companies.

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Farmers jeer, bands cheer Bipole III