New power line not needed, mayor says

A new high voltage power line to the so-called Industrial Heartland northeast of the city is not needed, an Edmonton-area mayor and chairman of the area's industry association says.

The province is overestimating the need for the power since most of the oilsands upgrader projects proposed for the region have been shelved, said Don Rigney, mayor of Sturgeon County and chairman of Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association, a groupcomprising thefour municipal governmentsin the region.

"If it's not for export and clearly the demand isn't in the Heartland, somebody help me out here," Rigney said. "There's no need for it."

The 500-kilovolt line, which would be built by Epcor and Alta Link, would go along one of four proposed routes along the western or eastern borders of the city.

However, the proposal has met with vocal opposition from residents' groups on both sides of the city. An information meeting in west Edmonton last week drew hundreds of concerned residents.

The groups want the proponents to bury sections of line that bypass residential areas, but Rigney doesn't understand why it needs to be built in the first place.

"I need to hear why we need to do this what justification is there for this?" he asked.

But an Alberta government spokesperson argued the line is necessary because the province needs to upgrade its entire electrical system.

"We're not looking at just two or three years down the road we're trying to look 10, 15 and 20 years down the road on what we're going to need in the province," said Energy Ministry spokesman Jerry Bellikka.

Rigney also had harsh words for Bill 50, proposed legislation that will eliminate the legal requirement for public hearings into new power lines.

"You lose any input as to determining the need and I think that's fundamental," he said. "This thing seems to be very dictatorial."

But Bellikka argued there has been plenty of public input over the past decade, and the province believes there is significant need for an upgraded electricity grid.