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Fortis Inc.
The Fortis Building, Suite 1201
139 Water Street, PO Box 8837
St. John’s, Newfoundland
A1B 3T2

Attention: Ronald McCabe, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Fortis Inc. Board of Directors:
Angus Bruneau
Gilbert Bennett
Bruce Chafe
Darryl Fry
Linda Inkpen
Stanley Marshall
David Scales
James Stanford

Re: Fortis’ refusal to meet with citizens groups to discuss Fortis’ proposed hydro project in Belize.

With reference to your October 23, 2001 letter, we are disappointed by your refusal to meet with citizens’ groups concerning your company’s plans to flood the Macal River Valley in Belize. You insist that since Fortis CEO Stanley Marshall has met once with citizens’ groups, "no further meetings are necessary."

We disagree. Since Mr. Marshall met several members of our coalition in May of this year, new information about the project’s economic and environmental impacts has become available, and a number of very significant developments have occurred. We believe that it is imperative that Fortis’ Board meet with concerned citizens now, in order to discuss this new information, and to allow you to fulfill your fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders.

The most significant development is that in August, Fortis’ subsidiary Belize Electricity Company submitted its proposal to build the Chalillo dam to Belize authorities. This proposal includes a project justification and environmental impact assessment, conducted by AMEC and financed by Canadian taxpayers. AMEC concluded without substantiation that the Chalillo dam is a "least-cost option" for Belize while ignoring the key recommendation made by its own wildlife consultants, the Natural History Museum of London, that the Chalillo dam should not be built because it would cause "significant and irreversible" harm to Belize wildlife. Further to this, we have new evidence indicating that the dam project is not economic but Fortis’ monopoly will allow it to gouge captive Belizean ratepayers in order to pay for the dam’s high costs. Meanwhile, other competitive sources of power will be barred from supplying the Belize grid, creating public resentment and economic tensions within the region, and handicapping Belize’s economic development.

Ignoring all the evidence that the Chalillo dam should not be built, and the fact that the Belizean environmental review process has only just begun, Mr. Marshall has announced that Fortis is ready to start construction in January, 2002.

Mr. Marshall has repeatedly and publicly expressed a desire for "the facts" about the dam’s impacts and urged the Canadian public to reserve judgements about the project until the AMEC report is completed. Yet now that the report is completed, Fortis inexplicably refuses to discuss it in a public forum or with concerned citizens’ groups.

We believe that Mr. Marshall has misled the public and Fortis shareholders by claiming on CBC radio that his company would abandon the dam project if the Canadian environmental assessment found that it would cause "untoward damage to the environment," and now preparing to proceed with the dam, despite the fact that his own wildlife consultants concluded this is precisely what the dam will do.

Fortis’ refusal to meet with concerned citizens shows a contempt for public concerns about this hydro scheme, and for Canadian citizens who have unwittingly subsidized Fortis’ efforts, as well as a disregard for the economic well-being of Belize.

We sincerely hope that Fortis Directors will reject building the Chalillo dam. Members of our coalition remain committed to further dialogue with Fortis Directors on this important matter.

Sincerely,

Gráinne Ryder
Policy Director