Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 30, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B5 BUSINESS BUSINESS EDITOR: SHANE MINKIN 204-697-7308 ● BUSINESS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM B5 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg Metropolitan Region executive director Colleen Sklar and RM of McDonald Reeve Brad Erb, at Tuesday’s launch of an equal ownership partnership between WMR’s economic development organization and internet service provider. A NEW project is bringing high-speed fibre-optic internet — the industry gold standard — to several Winnipeg metro communities in the next 12 months. At a launch ceremony held Tues- day in Headingley, officials from the Winnipeg Metro Region touted their unique, 50-50 partnership with Mani- toba-based internet service providers to better connect rural municipalities around the city. “It honestly couldn’t be happening at a more pressing time,” WMR execu- tive director Colleen Sklar told the Free Press in an interview, emphasizing how the business partnership allows them “a seat at the table to make decisions that ensure affordable services for Manitobans.” Sklar said the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the number of people working or studying at home. “And that means more residents are depending on fast, reliable internet — making it quite literally an essential service,” she add- ed. “But if you go even just a few miles outside the Perimeter Highway,” she said, “you’ll quickly find extremely poor connections and even some people still using dial-up services.” The project is an equal-owner- ship consortium formed by WMR’s economic development arm JohnQ Public Inc. with RFNOW Inc., a Mani- toba-based internet service provid- er. That means both corporations have equal stakes over the business model’s profits, since they’re providing the same amount of seed money into the initiative and will also be paying back start-up loans together. “It’s really the kind of partnership that doesn’t happen often enough, and yet that’s more than necessary if you want to make sure no one is left behind in areas that might’ve been harder to help because they aren’t as densely populated,” said Brad Erb, reeve of Macdonald who’s also taken over chair- person duties at JohnQ. “This way, we’re not only providing critical access to high-speed internet for residential areas, businesses, farms and attracting more people to our re- gion,” he said, “but we’re actually en- suring that we have the infrastructure, the capacity, and the expertise to do so.” WMR’s role in the partnership also allows other internet service providers to join the consortium in future phases of the project, said Sklar. The first six areas that will be getting the new services include the rural mu- nicipalities of Portage la Prairie, Head- ingley, Macdonald, Ritchot, Rockwood, and Stonewall. Other metro areas are expected to join after the pilot year. Additional funding for the project has come from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, which CIRA vice-president David Fowler says “is exactly the type of project we had in mind when we developed our Commun- ity Investment Program.” “The internet is a connector, literally through its pipes, but, more important- ly, by connecting people with opportun- ities,” said Fowler in a statement. “As part of CIRA’s commitment to build a trusted internet for Canadians, we’re proud to see the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region working to bring broadband to all Manitobans.” Pricing for the project starts at $139.99 per month and hook-up fees start at $699.99, varying on the location of the home or business and the number of hook-ups that can be generated in an area. Communities can sign up for the services online or through newsletters sent out by WMR. Twitter: @temurdur Temur.Durrani@freepress.mb.ca Winnipeg Metro Region communities partner with internet service provider on fibre-optic upgrade Making high-speed connections TEMUR DURRANI LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER WITH uncertainty swirling over the fate of Manitoba Hydro’s international subsidiary, the leader of the NDP, Wab Kinew, announced on Tuesday the Crown corporation was selling off its equity stake in the Winnipeg company, Teshmont Consulting. Kinew said it was “an alarming de- velopment when it comes to our most important Crown corporation.” Kinew called it a “foolish decision” and one that could lead to higher elec- tricity rates for Manitobans. “Today we let this government priva- tize and sell off Teshmont. A year from now Manitoba Hydro International is broken off and sold off… Pretty soon Manitoba Hydro, the most important Crown corporation is irreparably dam- aged,” Kinew said. Manitoba Hydro has held a 40 per cent stake in Teshmont for many years. It is an electric power engineering firm that has been around since 1966 and helped build the original Bipole I transmis- sion line from northern Manitoba to the south. Teshmont does a lot of work for Mani- toba Hydro which has owned a piece of the firm as a partnership with a couple of very large engineering firms — the Wood Group PLC and Stantec, an inter- national publicly traded engineering firm. There were no statements about the transaction from Teshmont or Mani- toba Hydro on Tuesday. Sources say that Stantec has pur- chased Manitoba Hydro’s stake but that has not been confirmed. In Manitoba Hydro’s 2019-20 annual report that was released Tuesday, it lumps its revenue from Teshmont in with a small gas pipeline company called Minell Pipelines Ltd. that it has owned since 1999. Revenue to Manitoba Hydro from the two entities totalled $700,000 in fiscal year 2020 with a loss of $100,000 and $1 million in 2019 and a profit of $500,000. Kinew and Adrien Sala, the NDP’s Hydro critic, noted the Teshmont di- vestiture comes at a time when the fu- ture of Manitoba Hydro International seems cloudy after that wholly owned subsidiary issued a memo to staff ear- lier this month to stop taking new busi- ness until Oct. 7, the date of the next Manitoba Hydro board meeting. Sala said he did not know if MHI’s fate would be decided at that board meeting. He and Kinew said the Pallister govern- ment’s actions are worrying. “Why sell off a profitable asset of that nature? It just does not make sense,” Sala said. “We demand the premier come clean about his intentions to fur- ther privatize important assets of Mani- toba Hydro.” In an emailed response to a ques- tion, Minister of Crown Services Jeff Wharton, said, “As I have stated count- less times, Manitoba Hydro is and will remain a crown corporation. This is the same desperate scare tactic the NDP has been using for the past 20 years. Every time the NDP have made this accusation, they have been proven wrong.” Sala has introduced a private mem- ber’s bill that calls for further specifi- city regarding the government’s abil- ity to sell off any of Manitoba Hydro’s assets. It would call for a referendum not just to privatize the entirety of Manitoba Hydro — which is part of the current Manitoba Hydro Act — but also a referendum to sell off assets such as its stake in Teshmont Consulting. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca Selling Hydro consulting firm stake ‘foolish’: NDP MARTIN CASH JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Manitoba NDP Opposition Leader Wab Kinew says the sale of Manitoba Hydro’s equity stake in Teshmont Consulting is an ‘alarming development.’ B_05_Sep-30-20_FP_01.indd B5 2020-09-29 9:03 PM ;