Proposed new power line would avoid parks, reserves: Manitoba Hydro

WINNIPEG - Manitoba Hydro has chosen a preferred route for a major new transmission line - one that will avoid First Nations lands and national and provincial parks.

The Crown utility is proposing a 1,364-kilometre line that will run west from the Conawapa generating station to an area near The Pas, then south and east to Winnipeg.

The route was one of three being examined by the utility and was deemed to have the least amount of impact on agricultural land.

Hydro says more public consultations will be done before the route is finalized.

The aim is to have construction start in 2012 and have the line operating in 2017.

Hydro originally wanted to run a much shorter transmission line down the eastern side of the province, but the Manitoba government ordered a longer, west-side route to protect a wide swath of boreal forest.-CP-