Memo from Jay Grewal, President and CEO of Manitoba Hydro

Sent to Employees Monday, May 11, 2020

I want to provide you with an update on our collective efforts to find $86 million in cost
reductions and labour savings to support Manitoba’s pandemic response.

Since mid-April, we’ve gone through every part of this organization looking for opportunities to
reduce or eliminate discretionary and non-essential spending. Thanks to the hard work of all our
directors and managers and their teams, we’ve been able to find over $63 million of the needed
cost reductions. Another $12 million in savings was realized by, where ever, possible not filling
vacant or seasonal positions.

Regrettably, this achievement still leaves us about $11 million, or 13 per cent, short of the finish
line.

As per direction from government, workforce savings were a part of this review from the
beginning, and we’ve been working with the bargaining units to explore options which would
allow for flexibility in meeting this objective. Unfortunately, we could not find common ground on
a means to achieve the needed cost savings.

That leaves us with no choice other than to issue temporary layoff notices to approximately 600
to 700 employees, potentially starting as soon as late this week. The layoffs will last four months
and will be implemented following the provisions of the collective bargaining agreements.

This is a direction I sincerely hoped to avoid. Everyone who works for Manitoba Hydro is valuable
and makes an important contribution to our organization and the customers we serve. Reducing
our workforce, even temporarily, is a difficult choice and I recognize the impact it will have on
you, your families and our customers.

In the coming days, the Executive Leadership Team will be working diligently and quickly with
directors and managers to identify employees critical to short-term business needs and service
delivery. We will then make decisions about temporary layoffs based on that assessment.

Information will be shared with those affected in as timely a manner as possible.

The stress and uncertainty of the last two months has been difficult to say the least and I
appreciate these layoffs will create even more challenges. However, I’ve seen firsthand our
ability to weather a storm, mobilize within days to create a ‘virtual’ Manitoba Hydro and know
that, despite this setback, we will come through this together.

I sincerely thank all of you for your unwavering commitment to serving our customers in these
difficult and extraordinary times.

Work safe and stay healthy.

Jay Grewal​ (President & CEO)