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FREE PRESS Files<\/p>\n
The forecast for Manitoba Hydro? Pray for rain, snow and then more rain.<\/p>\n
The report outlines that several of those factors came together during the utility\u2019s last full fiscal year \u2014 along with huge costs to replace equipment damaged in a long, dry summer of forest fires.<\/p>\n
The end result? For the year, Hydro, instead of making the $220 million profit it had forecast in its budget, wound up losing $442 million \u2014 in all, a $662-million turnaround from its modest expectations. And the losses could have been even larger \u2014 recent legislative changes by the provincial government meant the utility paid a smaller dividend to the province in 2025-26 ($138 million instead of $302 million), as well as saving Hydro $131 million in capital taxes. Those two items together saved the utility $295 million.<\/p>\n
Of all the factors involved with the 2025-26 losses, drought was the biggest.<\/p>\n
And this is not the first year in recent memory that drought\u2019s been a problem. Four of the last five years have seen water flows lower than the statistical average, with 2025-26 being the worst example, with water flows being just 65 per cent of the annual average.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s coming? Well, just as Hydro says, it\u2019s uncontrollable.<\/p>\n
Scientific modelling in 2022 argued that climate change could see more intense spring precipitation in the watersheds that Hydro depends on to generate power, but up to 37 per cent less precipitation in winter periods \u2014 the problem then being the ability to hold peak amounts of spring rainfall in the watershed without also causing flooding.<\/p>\n
So, mixed results. But with the kneebone always connected to the thighbone.<\/p>\n
There have been drought cycles before and also cycles of high precipitation. But four out of the last five years delivering drought conditions does feel like something of a trend.<\/p>\n
So far this fiscal year \u2014 with only the first quarter results for the utility in hand \u2014 the company is doing better this year than last, losing only $15 million in the three months ending June 30, 2026, compared to losses of $55 million during the same period last year.<\/p>\n
And water levels in the spring did show improvement over 2025-26.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to note, though, that the financial improvement was almost exclusively driven by more money coming out of the pockets of Manitoba electrical consumers. A four per cent electrical rate increase, a 4.5 per cent natural gas rate increase and an increase in electrical demand due to unpredictable spring weather saw domestic revenue rise by $38 million \u2014 meaning 95 per cent of the cash driving the quarter\u2019s improved financial picture came directly from increased costs to Manitoba customers.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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And that\u2019s the other truism about Manitoba Hydro.<\/p>\n
In the end, we pay \u2014 especially when low water levels mean we don\u2019t have power to sell outside the province, and, even worse, when those same low water levels mean we have to buy ever-more expensive power from outside the province to backstop winter demand.<\/p>\n
Hope for fall rain. And snow. Plenty of rain and snow.<\/p>\n
And then perhaps some rain.<\/p>\n
Or expect to see the result trickle down into your power bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hope for rain. Or snow. Or both. There\u2019s a truism buried deep in a financial outlook in Manitoba…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-931302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}