This article was published in December 2023 and may be outdated.
A housing complex full of people has a major natural gas leak. The leak goes unnoticed for a day and a half — in a highly populated area of Winnipeg — and doesn’t get fixed until a nearby Hydro employee smells it.
This happened in Winnipeg last year. The housing complex had a high number of new Canadians, many of whom had never been around natural gas before moving here. Many assumed the smell was odour from a sewer — they didn’t know natural gas is highly flammable and can ignite when exposed to an ignition source. They didn’t know what natural gas smelled like or what to do if they smelled it.
“Everyone got really lucky this time, but we can’t always count on that,” said Shannon Johnson, Manitoba Hydro’s Distribution Operations & Maintenance Director. “We knew something needed to change, and we needed to reach this audience.”
Why Natural Gas Smells Like Rotten Eggs
Fun fact: natural gas is actually colourless and odourless. Find out how and why we add the rotten egg odour (mercaptan) to the gas that heats our buildings.
Here’s how we responded: we asked newcomer organizations for advice. They responded quickly, and we translated a two-page pamphlet with safety information about natural gas and carbon monoxide into French, Arabic, and Ukrainian (languages identified by these organizations as common among new Canadians who may have never been around natural gas before) and began distributing it to newcomer organizations and new customers. The pamphlet includes a scratch-and-sniff sticker to illustrate what natural gas smells like (rotten eggs, thanks to an additive chemical in natural gas called mercaptan) and details what to do if you smell it.
“Thanks to translation efforts from our own employees, we were able to hit the ground running on this and turn it around amazingly quickly,” said Tara Kendzierski, Manitoba Hydro’s Public Programs and Safety Coordinator. “It’s going to be really helpful for these newcomer audiences.”
We’re also running Facebook ads, targeted specifically at Ukrainian and Arabic speakers, with safety messaging about natural gas and carbon monoxide.
Colourful Manitoba Hydro pamphlets detailing natural gas and carbon monoxide safety tips, displayed in English, Arabic and Ukrainian.
Pamphlets are available for pickup at any Manitoba Hydro office in areas with natural gas service, including at 360 Portage Avenue in Winnipeg and our other Customer Service Centres (hydro.mb.ca). We have English, French, Ukrainian, and Arabic versions available with the smelly stickers. If you can’t make it down to one of our offices and you want one for yourself, email us at CorporateCommunications@hydro.mb.ca, tell us which language(s) you want, how many copies you need, and your address, and we’ll mail them to you.