I was just listening to CBC and heard about your site. I am a retired road engineer from the Kenora area and I'd like to share important information that has been overlooked.

An expensive project like this is very complex and none of the information I've seen included the cost of construction roads. If the cost of the project is the main reason for opposing a western route please consider the following.

In 1992 I consulted on a project with the Ontarion Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and Manitoba Highways(MH) to build an all-weather road from Reddit through Werner lake and connecting to Manitoba at  through Nopiming Park Preserve to Lac du Bonnet. Another permanent route was investigated to Island lake, running through Manitoba, north from Lac du Bonnet or through Ontario running north from Werner Lake.

MH's estimate to run what they called 'the east side road' was $950 million dollars in 1992, by my rough estimate that cost today would be over $1.5 billion.

The MTO road came in slightly lower at $870 million in 1992 dollars (about 1.4 billion today)

The terrain through this part of the country is incredibly difficult to build in. Half of the land is swamp and requires millions of tonnes of fill to build a road bed. What land is dry is granite and very irregular requiring extensive blasting. Our project review showed that over 75% of the roadway would have to be either filled or blasted. VERY expensive.

What I know of the geography in Manitoba, the mainly dry, flat and easy to excavate route in the western part of the province would be a less costly location to build roads, but most of this construction wouldn't be needed since the province already has many highways and high quality secondary roads in the area.

If a powerline is to run down the east side of manitoba it would need to run in a straight line, it could not meander around obstacles like bogs and granite ridges as a road could, but a road would be needed to bulid the line and allow year round access to the line. parts of the road could be built cheaply in a temporary fashion, but the nature of the land means even the most basic road would cost as much as a billion dollars. In the west you have provincial highways and well built roads that could support construction equipment and permit easy access to the transmission line right-of-way.

Keep in mind my rough estimate of $1.5 billion for a road up the east only goes to Island lake, the access roads for the line would need to go further north to Gillam.

Finally, has anyone considered a submerged line under the lake? Many countrries in Europe like the Netherlands and Sweden have used underwater sea cables with success and even though the cable costs are very high no towers or roads would need to be built.

Hope my 2 cents help