The project, initially slated to have a electrical generation capacity of 300 megawatts (MW) was scaled down to 138MW and largely financed by Manitoba Hydro after private financial backers pulled out.

Three separate Government of Manitoba Orders in Council (#88-90) issued March 18, 2010 authorized the financing and operation of the St. Joseph wind energy project located near Letellier, Manitoba.

Under the arrangement the $345 million dollar project was funded with $95 million from Pattern Energy and a $250-260 million Manitoba Hydro loan to the St. Jospeh Wind Farm Inc. Repayments to the loan are to be deducted against what Manitoba Hydro owes for power purchased, and in the case of default hydro takes ownership of the wind towers.

Six years ago, the province set a target of producing 1,000 megawatts of power from wind within a decade, but it's likely to fall short of that.