Tory MLA Steven Fletcher stonewalls his party's Efficiency Manitoba bill

A Manitoba Progressive Conservative MLA spent hours Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning delaying the passage of a bill by his own government.

"I am eating jelly beans. I offer jelly beans to the committee, but when the jelly beans come out, you know it's going to be a long night," Steven Fletcher, who represents Winnipeg's Assiniboia constituency, said ahead of the committee meeting at the legislative building on Efficiency Manitoba.

I've never seen a government filibuster its own bill. This is really quite remarkable.- NDP MLA Rob Altermeyer

It was the second time in as many weeks that a reading of Bill 19 proved to be less than efficient.

Fletcher and his arsenal of binders, reports and questions stretched Tuesday's meeting well past midnight, picking the bill apart clause-by-clause, before it finally passed its second reading.

As Fletcher dragged things out several other MLAs at the table read their phones or the newspaper and chatted quietly amongst themselves, just as they had the week before when Fletcher did the same thing for the first reading.

NDP MLA Rob Altermeyer said he's never seen anything like it.

"I've never seen a government filibuster its own bill. This is really quite remarkable."

The bill proposes to create a new Crown corporation to manage how Manitobans use electricity. Crown Services Minister Ron Schuler has said the goal of the new agency is to promote "initiatives to encourage energy conservation and efficiency."

The new entity would take over the existing Power Smart program currently operated by Manitoba Hydro. Staff at Hydro, currently working with that program, would be moved to the new Crown corporation.

• Premier hopes new Efficiency Manitoba Crown corporation will boost energy savings
• Efficiency Manitoba doesn't seem efficient to PC MLA

Fletcher said  Efficiency Manitoba is senseless and expensive — he estimates start-up costs for the new Crown corporation could ring up a bill of $75 million to $100 million — when Manitoba already has a surplus of energy and a body within Manitoba Hydro that already manages it.

"When supply far exceeds demand, the last thing you would want to do is reduce the demand, unless of course you are dealing with, like, nuclear waste or something," said Fletcher.

Fletcher has also maintained that Efficiency Manitoba did not go through enough public consultation before its final stage in the legislature.

And he raised a question that no one in attendance on Tuesday had an answer to:

"Why isn't anyone from Hydro here?"