Manitoba farmers stage protest

About a dozen farmers spent the weekend attempting to block access to a jobsite southeast of Winnipeg where work is underway on Manitoba Hydro's Bipole III power transmission line.

The protest near the community of Landmark began early Saturday morning and continued Sunday, with the RCMP keeping watch on what it says was a peaceful demonstration.

Tim Wiens, who owns land in the area, says the farmers took action after spotting what he calls a dirty auger being moved from one site to another as workers prepare foundations for transmission line towers.

Wiens says uncleaned augers can contaminate farmland with seeds and diseases, including some that can affect animals.

Hydro says in a statement that its contractors remain at the site.

The Crown utility also says the augers are scraped and disinfected before they're moved and that at this time of year, topsoil which could harbour contaminants is frozen and does not adhere to the equipment.

Bipole III is a $4 billion project aimed at bringing power from northern generating stations to homes and businesses in the south. Hydro is aiming to get the line up and running by 2018.

It originally planned to run a shorter, direct line down the east side of Lake Winnipeg. But due in part to fears that First Nations in the area would fight the project in court, the NDP government ordered Hydro to reroute the line far to the west _ almost to the Saskatchewan boundary — where it loops southward and back east.