Manitoba’s NDP government has laid out its plans for the coming year in its second throne speech since taking office.
The speech addresses health care, affordability and crime.
It says it will freeze Manitoba Hydro electricity rates for one year starting in 2025, fulfilling one of its election campaign promises. Premier Wab Kinew touts the move as an affordability measure for Manitobans.
“We looked at it and Hydro’s telling us we can freeze rates this year, we’re going to bring that to the Public Utilities Board, and we’re confident the PUB will be able to deliver on this affordability,” Kinew said.
Although that cuts into the Crown corporation’s budget, Kinew reaffirmed his party’s commitment to balance the province’s budget by spring 2027.
Premier Wab Kinew also says the government would look at introducing legislation to address anticompetitive contracts that make groceries more expensive. He added Manitoba would be a “leader” in ending restrictive covenance, which dictates which types of business can be within a certain distance of one another.
But Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Loren Remillard doubts it would make a noticeable difference.
“We’ve gone down this road in the past, wage and price controls and interjecting into the market through government forces, and it hasn’t historically worked well.” he said. “The reality is there’s more many levers at the government’s disposal to deal with affordability.”
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Remillard also wants to see more incentive for business to come to Manitoba.
“We continue to lag the country in terms of economic growth, GDP growth,” he said.
The province also committed to 800 new hip and knee surgeries next year in Selkirk, a $4-million program that has hired two new surgeons and an anesthetist.
Doctors Manitoba president-elect Dr. Nicehlle Desilets is “optimistic” about the province’s physician staffing.
“We’ve seen some positive change. 116 physicians hired in the province this year so far,” she said.
But Jason Linklater with the Manitoba Association of Healthcare Professionals isn’t so positive.
“Health Sciences Centre has a 52-week waitlist for an MRI, and there are zero jobs posted to help address that wait time,” he said. “The employers are not meeting what’s required of them to deliver on these promises to the public.”
The premier noted immigration will be an essential part of filling those roles, despite immigration caps introduced by the federal government.
“Economic immigration, so the Provincial Nominee Program, and then health care enabling immigration are two of our big priorities,” Kinew said.
The province is also looking at tougher penalties for landlords who neglect maintenance or evict tenants illegally.
Opposition leader Wayne Ewasko says the NDP’s plan lacks substance.
“I would have hoped that we’d have head a few more plans,” he said.
“I guess time will tell how many of their recycled programs (are) in their mandate,” he added, taking credit for the hip and knee surgery announcement, stating the PCs introduced it.
The government says it also wants to establish an all-party committee to explore the future of local journalism, including rural and cultural media. Ewasko declined to comment when asked if he would participate.
A new statue is to be commissioned for the front lawn of the legislature building to replace one of Queen Victoria that was toppled by protesters on Canada Day in 2021.
Kinew says the new statue will be of a mother bison and her calf to serve as a reminder of the sacred bonds of family that were harmed in the residential school era.
The government is also to work with cultural institutions, museums, and history and heritage experts to come up with the best way to display the Queen Victoria statue, which was beheaded and covered in paint.
The legislature is scheduled to sit until Dec. 5 and break until March.
— with files from Iris Dyck
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