I am writing as an individual citizen. I run a small consulting firm (Boke: bokeconsulting.com) which, for more than a decade, has been involved in developing and implementing renewable energy solutions for First Nations and other communities in Manitoba.

In my view, a Federal Impact Assessment is needed for this project for a number of reasons:

1: While there is a current Manitoba Public Utilities Board hearing process in place regarding this project, it is constrained in its mandate only to consider the effect of the project on likely electricity rates in Manitoba. While this is an important issue, it is not broad enough to determine whether this project is in the broader public interest, or whether other projects would better address the winter peak loading issue that the Brandon Project is designed to address.

2: There is some assurance that there will be a provincial environmental review after the PUB hearing process, but there is no assurance yet that this will be a public process, nor do we know what is included in an "environmental review" and what might be excluded.

3: The impacts that, in my view, must be assessed include (but are not limited to):

• The effects of the significant amount of new greenhouse gases that will be emitted over the next 40 years if this project goes ahead. WE know these effects will include:
  • A greater likelihood, intensity and size of forest fires, which will have particularly devastating effects on Canadians who live in the north.
  • increased likelihood of both flooding and droughts, which will have significant and damaging effects on agriculture and cities in the south (such as Winnipeg and Brandon), which are located beside rivers.
  • The predicted increased severity of droughts will, ironically, make hydroelectricity production more erratic, increasing the need to use the gas turbines proposed for the Brandon Project
• Increased debt burden on Manitobans.
• Increased pressure on low-income Manitobans from upward pressure on electricity rates needed to service the new debt Manitoba Hydro will need to take on to pay for this project.
• The contradiction between what is being proposed in this project (increased reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation) and federal policy (and laws passed by parliament) to move Canada away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy.
• The health effects:
  • The health effects of increased frequency, severity, and duration of extended heat events are well known. These effects are being felt across Canada and worldwide. While on a percentage basis, this project will make only a very small contribution to this heating effect, as Canadians, we have an obligation to do everything reasonably within our power not to contribute to this significant and growin health problem.
  • There may also be local health effects in the Brandon area from quadrupling the gas turbine capacity in that city. These potential health effects are not well understood and require careful, thorough and objective study,

While my comments may seem to focus only on Manitoba, the effects will not be confined to our borders. Increased droughts and flooding will affect all of Canada, with greater or lesser specific effects in different parts of our country. Forest fires have effects throughout Canada's boreal forests all across Canada. They disrupt the lives and damage the quality of life of people who live in forested areas in Canada, many of whom are indigenous.

One of the most significant contributions Manitoba has made to Canada's goal of ending fossil fuel dependence by 2050 has been our clean electricity grid. If approved, the Brandon Project will still be contributing to GHG emissions in 2050, and for a number of decades beyond that.

The entire world is moving toward increasingly green electricity. This project moves in the opposite direction.