By Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew waits before the Speech from the Throne, at the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski)
Manitoba is renewing its call for a national electricity grid that would move more power between provinces and territories and help the province’s exports.
Premier Wab Kinew says it’s a good time to build domestic energy transmission in an era of economic threats from the United States.
A national grid would need federal money, and Manitoba is signing on to an Ontario-led memorandum calling for the project.
Kinew says now that the federal government has struck a deal with Alberta on a potential new oil pipeline, it would be good for Ottawa to help expand hydroelectric transmission that’s good for the environment.
Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro already exports power to some areas in Ontario, Saskatchewan and the United States.
But the utility has warned it needs new power generation as early as 2029, and the government is looking to set up wind power generation in conjunction with Indigenous-led organizations.
“What better timing than now for the federal government to invest in a national electricity grid. They did the deal with Alberta yesterday. There’s a lot of people who are saying, ‘Good for the economy.’ But there’s some Canadians saying, ‘What about the environment?'” Kinew said Friday.
“If we want to build that transmission line to northern Saskatchewan, to northern Alberta, to help decarbonize oil and gas in Canada, this is the time to do it.”
