“How was the $224 million spent?”

If you want to have some fun try calling Dave Chomiak, NDP Minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, and ask him that question.

The $224 million figure represents the amount aboriginal reserves up north have received in reimbursements from Manitoba Hydro over the years for “negotiation” costs. Hydro provided the $224 million figure to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a donation-based taxpayers’ watchdog organization, last year.

Manitoba Hydro wants to build a couple more dams up north so instead of building them, flooding some reserve land and then working out a compensation deal, Hydro has tried to negotiate a deal ahead of time.

That part makes sense. It’s better to figure out an agreement before flooding someone’s land.

However, Manitoba Hydro has been paying for consultants, lawyers and all kinds of other expenses racked up by aboriginal reserves during the “negotiations.” Hydro won’t release copies of the receipts or more details - claiming how the $224 million was spent is confidential.

Worse yet, the provincial government seems content with keeping the near quarter-billion dollars in spending completely hidden from the public. It’s almost as if Hydro and the provincial government have used the money to build a secret nuclear weapon or a Jurassic Park of sorts full of reincarnated Woolly Mammoths.

Regardless, when people ask about how the $224 million was spent Minister Dave Chomiak often responds by suggesting it’s better to negotiate with the reserves ahead of building the dams.

Again, we’ve agreed on that point for years. But Minister, the question is – how was the $224 million spent? He should answer that question especially as Hydro rates keep going up.

When opposition MLAs have asked about the $224 million in question period, Chomiak has also tried deflecting, suggesting they don’t like aboriginal people. That’s odd, this issue is largely on the radar because many aboriginal people up north want to know how the money was spent too.

The opposition has asked why millions have gone for a sewage system and community centres that don’t exist. Dave Chomiak doesn’t like answering those questions either.

Recently, when the Canadian Taxpayers Federation discovered part of the $224 million was spent on a $75,000 “signing ceremony,” we released the details to the media. We wanted to know how $75,000 was spent on a photo-op for politicians?

We didn’t get an answer.

Over the years we’ve heard some pretty disturbing allegations about how the money has been spent. Band members have described community meetings to discuss Hydro dams that had all kinds of door prizes for attendees – video game systems, deep freezes, big screen TVs.

Hydro claims they would never authorize such door prizes. They’re probably right. But were Hydro dollars somehow manipulated to pay for the prizes? Or did the money come from funds the community received from Ottawa?

Cheque stubs have even been produced showing people were paid to attend public meetings by a consulting company that is making millions off these “negotiations.” Were those Hydro dollars or is the consulting company just a generous company?

One thing is clear, $224 million is worth asking about. Why don’t you see what Dave Chomiak tells you?

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