Manitoba’s Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh released the Clean Environment Commission’s (CEC) report on the Keeyask Generation Project on May 7. It recommends the province issue a Class-3 Environment Act licence, subject to recommendations for licence conditions related to mitigating impacts or monitoring effects.
“This is an important project, both for the environment and for the economy, and we will carefully consider the commission’s recommendations,” Mackintosh said.
In addition to the licence recommendation, the report also gave non-licensing recommendations for improvements to environmental assessments and the processes and protocols governing environmental assessments in Manitoba.
According to the report, it will take the Keeyask project 100 years to release the same amount of greenhouse-gas emission that a natural gas-fired generation plant would produce in just 177 days of operation.
The project is being carried out by the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership, comprised of Manitoba Hydro, the Tataskweyak Cree Nation, the War Lake First Nation, the York Factory First Nation, and the Fox Lake Cree Nation.
