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Manitoba Metis Federation seeks judicial enforcement of Manitoba Hydro agreement

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Manitoba Metis Federation seeks judicial enforcement of Manitoba Hydro agreement

The Manitoba Metis Federation is going to court and to Canada's National Energy Board in an effort to have a draft C$67 million agreement with Manitoba Hydro enforced.

The federation, known as the MMF, claims the provincial government "breached the honor of the Crown as well as other legal and constitutional duties owing to the MMF" when Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister ordered the province-owned electricity utility not to execute the agreement, which would ease approvals for the Minnesota-Manitoba transmission line. Most of Manitoba Hydro's board quit as a result of the dispute. The Metis are people of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal heritage whose rights in land and resource issues are similar to those of First Nations groups.

"We will hold this government and Pallister to the very essence of their statements and their actions in court," MMF President David Chartrand said in a June 4 statement posted to the federation's website. "If you push our people, you try to disrespect our people, you try to exclude our people, you try to punish our people, the Metis Nation will come at you with everything that we've got. And today, my friends, we are coming, and we'll be coming strong."

The MMF also filed the agreement, which has not been signed by Manitoba Hydro or the government, as evidence in an ongoing hearing on the power line project at the National Energy Board. In response, Manitoba Hydro's lawyers filed a letter June 11 asking the board to remove the filing.

The MMF filing "includes reference to a document entitled the 'Major Agreed Points' as well as litigation before the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench arising from the Major Agreed Points, which were improperly filed publicly in breach of without prejudice discussions," the letter said. "Manitoba Hydro advises that it will be seeking a ruling from the Board that the MMF IR Response be struck and clarification from the Board that the matter is not relevant to this proceeding. The evidence is an abuse of process and breaches settlement privilege."

Pallister said March 21 that the proposed agreement with the MMF amounted to "persuasion money" to expedite regulatory approval for the project. Under Canadian law the Metis must be consulted before energy projects can be constructed on their traditional lands. Nine of 10 Manitoba Hydro board members resigned in the wake of the disagreement. Those members were later replaced by the government.

The Minnesota-Manitoba transmission line, a proposed 500-kV network that would carry electricity from the province's massive hydroelectric projects to the U.S. border at Minnesota, is considered essential for Manitoba Hydro to recoup cost overruns at its electricity infrastructure projects through export revenues. On the U.S. side, ALLETE Inc. subsidiary Minnesota Power Inc. is building its portion of the line, called the Great Northern Transmission Line, to bring electricity to its service territory in northeastern Minnesota.

The first hearing on the MMF's court action is scheduled for June 25 in Winnipeg.