Hydro to power down old infrastructure

Manitoba Hydro is promising fewer power outages in Winnipeg once it replaces or converts 41 electrical substations in a project the utility says will last up to 20 years and cost as much as $1.2 billion.

Spokesman Peter Chura said upgrades to the electrical distribution system will improve safety, reliability and resiliency, and reduce maintenance costs.

“We’ve been clear for a few years now that aging infrastructure is a challenge for the province going forward, so our programs like this are solving that problem incrementally,” he said Friday.

Many substations in Winnipeg are nearing the end of their service life or operating close to capacity. The upgrades will increase capacity, said Craig Sambrooke, Hydro’s construction community liaison.

Alberta’s immigrants feeling xenophobic chill from some questions in Monday’s referendum

EDMONTON — When Gurnam Singh Dodd came to Canada in 1976, he landed first in southern Ontario, where his brother lived. At the time, the province was mired in the era of stagflation, and it was difficult to find work; but he had some friends living in Edmonton, and asked for their advice.

“Come to Alberta,” they told him. It was a land of opportunity. The economy was booming, bolstered by soaring oil and gas prices; Dodd could surely find multiple jobs within days. With that, the young Sikh newcomer packed up and headed west, looking to put down roots on the edge of the Canadian Prairies.

Nearly 50 years later, that proved to be a wise decision. Dodd worked hard to succeed in his new home, moving up from his first minimum-wage jobs to a successful career with Edmonton Transit, and then as a driver’s licence examiner. He raised a thriving family, gave back to his community and became, in all ways, a very proud Albertan.

Around the turn of the millennium, eager to do his part in the province’s public life, he joined what was then Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party, under the leadership of premier Ralph Klein. (Klein’s father, Dodd says proudly, was a friend, and helped get him into politics.)

On the night table: Carol Off

Carol Off: Author, True Patriot Love

I’m about to start On Treason By Patrick Lennox. I recently finished reading Margaret Atwood’s memoir Book of Lives and loved it; I came to understand, from her point of view, all the things that made me fall in love with Canadian literature as a young person. Now I understand how difficult it was to actually get published in this country from the points of view of those writing, and all the wonderful, wacky stories Atwood has about culture in Canada.

Carol Off launches True Patriot Love on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location.

Health ministers meeting ends without long-term funding commitment from Ottawa

Canada’s health minister failed to deliver the promises of long-term funding increases that her provincial and territorial counterparts, who were gathered in Winnipeg this week, had been seeking.

Instead, Marjorie Michel reiterated the federal government’s commitment to working collaboratively towards renewing bilateral funding agreements and to meet again before the end of the year to discuss long-term funding.

“The decision we all agreed on is to have our public service… start the work on what will be the next step for the next negotiation on Canada Health Transfer and other agreements,” Michel said Friday at a news conference after meeting with the other health ministers.

When asked why the federal government couldn’t commit to maintaining funding levels geared, at a minimum, to the rate of inflation over the long term, Michel said that it’s time to update agreements signed a decade ago.