Manitoba | Provincial Politics

[Wpg_Guy]

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[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by Wpg_Guy

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manitoba has a climate plan like i have a weight loss plan

[BlackDog204]

The climate change plan for most of North America is to ignore it, and hope the problem goes away. I've heard it's pretty much irreversible, and people ahve simply given up.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

The climate change plan for most of North America is to ignore it, and hope the problem goes away. I've heard it's pretty much irreversible, and people ahve simply given up.

that seems to be the case. people claim to love their kids but nobody seems particularly interested in leaving them a world worth living in

[pspeid]

Originally Posted by borkborkbork

that seems to be the case. people claim to love their kids but nobody seems particularly interested in leaving them a world worth living in

I think that fatigue is a big part of it. When the powers that be know exactly what the problems are and are content to bow to the greed of oil & gas companies, and a big chunk of the population bases their own personal identity on how much they oppose anything environmentally progressive, it can feel like pushing a boulder uphill.

[Wpg_Guy]

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[Wpg_Guy]

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[Wpg_Guy]

We’re not falling back, springing forward anymore; Manitoba staying on daylight time
Carol Sanders
Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026



Time’s up for the time change in Manitoba.

Manitobans won’t be setting their clocks back an hour when daylight time comes to an end elsewhere on Nov. 1.

After surveying residents on the twice annual clock adjustment, the province announced Thursday that it will no longer spring forward and fall back, as has been the case for the majority of the past 110 or so years.

“We heard from Manitobans loud and clear — no more changing the clocks in Manitoba,” Premier Wab Kinew said in a news release Thursday. “Permanent daylight saving time is good for our health, good for business and good for parents… This change means one less adjustment families have to deal with each spring and fall. That’s why this November, your clocks won’t be changing.”

More than half of the people who took part in an online EngageMB survey said they would like to see the practice end. The survey asked if they preferred earlier sunrises in winter with standard time or the later sunsets in summer with daylight time.

Manitoba arrived at the decision after Saskatchewan, Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta.

After the announcement in March that B.C. would stick to daylight time year-round, Kinew said Manitoba would not follow suit.

“Everybody’s got an opinion on it, but we only have so many hours in a day, and we’re going to spend those hours on health care and lowering your cost of living,” he said at the time.

But after hearing from many Manitobans who were tired of the practice, a few weeks later Kinew announced the online survey.

At the time, the premier referenced a 2025 study by researchers at California’s Stanford University, who concluded that adopting one time for the entire year is better for human health. That study, which was cited in the Manitoba survey, suggested permanent standard time would bring the most health benefits, including a reduction in obesity and strokes.

However, a public opinion poll in May indicated that Manitobans preferred year-round daylight time. That survey, conducted by Winnipeg-based Prairie Research Associates, found roughly three in four Manitobans supported an end to seasonal time changes.

It has been a perennial issue on both sides of the political aisle.

In 2019, while in opposition, the New Democrats launched public consultations; Kinew hasn’t said what became of them.

In 2022, under the Tories, the provincial government considered moving to year-round daylight time. A bill before the legislature was tied to the United States changing its seasonal time change, and Manitobans would’ve needed to support the idea. The U.S. bill has repeatedly stalled, including last October in the Senate.

Progressive Conservative MLA Ron Schuler introduced a private member’s bill in March to move Manitoba to permanent daylight time.

The daylight saving time transition in spring originated during the First World War to boost productivity, conserve energy and extend daylight leisure time.

Report on health implications of time change

Winnipeg Free Press

[Wpg_Guy]

‘On track’: premier’s pledge to balance books step closer
Manitoba announces $832-M deficit — in line with previous projections
Carol Sanders
Monday, Sep. 21, 2026


MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS

Premier Wab Kinew and Finance Minister Adrien Sala released the 2025-26 audited public accounts during a press conference at the Manitoba Legislative Building on Monday.

Manitoba’s public accounts for the last fiscal year show the province is “moving in the right direction,” the NDP finance minister says.

On Monday, the provincial deficit for 2025-26 was $832 million, nearly half the $1.666-billion deficit forecast in the third quarter update and in line with the $794-million estimate in Budget 2026.

“I’m particularly proud of this final result given what our problems are stated the past year — the implications of tariffs on our economy, the worst wildfire season in 30 years, which resulted in significant emergency expenditures, and of course a significant drought,” Finance Minister Adrien Sala said at a news conference.

The province reported revenues of $25.1 billion and expenses of $25.9 billion, resulting in the $832-million deficit. Manitoba’s net debt is $36.5 billion and costs the province $2.3 billion a year in debt servicing charges.

“While other provinces are struggling to rein in their deficits, here in Manitoba we’re moving in the right direction,” said Sala, flanked by Premier Wab Kinew.

The province also announced it made a $600-million contribution to the fiscal stabilization fund, commonly known as the rainy day fund “that helps to ensure that government can continue providing services no matter what happens,” Kinew said.

It is the first deposit in five years and the largest in more than 20 years, the province said. The contribution more than doubles the balance of the fund and re-establishes compliance with legislated reserve targets.

The premier said his government will meet its commitments to balance the province’s books before the next provincial election, which is due on or by Oct. 5, 2027.

“This puts us on track to balance the budget next year, just like we promised,” Kinew said.

Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said most Manitobans don’t feel like the province is heading in the right direction.

“Every Manitoban I’ve spoken to has said they are struggling with affordability, they’re struggling with paying bills, they’re struggling with putting food on the table,” Khan told reporters Monday.

“This NDP government clearly has no plan for affordability,” Khan said. “They have no plan to make life better for Manitobans. They are simply going to pick and choose the numbers they want to show Manitobans.”

Khan pointed to a line in a TD economic report Monday that said “2026 is shaping up to be yet another subpar year for Manitoba’s economy.”

Winnipeg Free Press

[Wpg_Guy]

Kinew, NDP rise to new heights in Free Press-Abacus Data poll; support for Khan, Tories falls further
Chris Kitching
Monday, Sep. 21, 2026


MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES

Premier Wab Kinew’s personal approval rating increased five percentage points to 68 per cent year-over-year

Support for Premier Wab Kinew’s NDP climbed to its highest level yet — buoyed by a bump outside Winnipeg — while the Tories lost some ground in a quarterly Free Press-Abacus Data poll.

With an election year looming, 60 per cent of those surveyed said they would vote for the New Democrats and 29 per cent said they would back Obby Khan’s Progressive Conservatives.

Seven per cent would support the Liberals — led by Willard Reaves, who doesn’t hold a seat in the legislature — while 18 per cent were undecided.

“To some degree, that increase in (NDP) support is driven in part by higher support outside of Winnipeg,” said Mary Agnes Welch, a vice-president with Abacus (formerly Probe Research).

“I think part of it might be a little bit of, maybe, a (U.S. President Donald) Trump bump. There’s sort of this feeling of rallying behind our leaders in the face of what is now pretty clearly a trade war and, also, perhaps kind of rewarding Wab Kinew for taking a pretty tough stand on some of those tariff issues.”

Kinew’s personal approval rating increased five percentage points to 68 per cent year-over-year. Khan’s rating decreased three points to 31 per cent, while Reaves’ rating dropped four points to 19 per cent, the poll showed.

“It tells me, as the leader of the party, that we continue to have a lot of work to do, and a lot of that work is getting out and meeting and listening to Manitobans,” said Khan, who has led the Tories since April 2025.

He said the economy, affordability, crime and safety and health care are the top concerns he hears from Manitobans.

“We have to do a better job of getting our message out on how we’re going to address those issues and make life better in Manitoba,” Khan said.

The New Democrats and Tories have trended in opposite directions in Abacus polls since Kinew won a majority in October 2023, when the incumbent PCs were led by Heather Stefanson.

A December 2023 survey put NDP and Tory support at 51 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively. The NDP was backed by 55 per cent of respondents in a June 2026 poll, the PCs had 32 per cent and the Liberals eight per cent. The Tories have dropped six points since a March survey.

The New Democrats’ popularity in rural and northern areas in the latest poll (54 per cent) was 12 points higher than June. The Tories, whose traditional strongholds are rural, and the Liberals lost three and five points, respectively.

Welch said the PCs should be “pretty concerned” about polling numbers. The next election must be held on or before Oct. 5, 2027. Kinew has floated the idea of an early vote.

“When you’re running a fair bit behind the NDP outside of the Perimeter, if that trend holds… that does put some of those rural ridings in play that the NDP are already looking at,” Welch said.

Tory MLA Colleen Robbins edged NDP candidate Ray Berthelette by only 70 votes in an August 2025 byelection in Spruce Woods, where the PCs previously enjoyed landslide victories.

Abacus surveyed 1,000 random adults between Aug. 28 and Sept. 14. The online poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.

In Winnipeg, support for the NDP and Liberals increased one point to 64 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively. The Tories’ popularity dropped three points to 22 per cent.

Smaller sample sizes suggested the NDP made gains at the Tories’ expense in Winnipeg’s suburbs, which tend to be election battlegrounds, but lost some support to the Liberals in the inner-city.

Smaller samples also suggested some support among seniors and men shifted from the PCs to the New Democrats.

Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor in political studies at the University of Manitoba, said the poll should give the NDP confidence and prompt the PCs to take a hard look at their strategies.

He cautioned a lot can happen to influence public opinion before the next general election is held.

“I would say Kinew is doing all the right things in terms of delivering on some of his election promises, (and) in terms of his appearances in public,” Adams said. “He’s also enjoying a good relationship with (Prime Minister) Mark Carney, so there’s probably a little bit of a brand halo.”

Recent polls suggested national support is high for Carney and the federal Liberal government’s approach to Trump’s tariffs.

Adams said the Tories are in a situation similar to the early 2000s, when then-leader Stuart Murray had trouble resonating with voters while facing a highly popular NDP premier in Gary Doer.

The PCs also face a “Wally Daudrich effect,” Adams said. Daudrich had strong support among PC members in rural Manitoba when he narrowly lost the party’s leadership to Khan.

After the Tories disqualified him from seeking the Turtle Mountain nomination, Daudrich quit and unsuccessfully ran for the Keystone Party in a July byelection in The Pas-Kameesak.

Welch said PC supporters are probably watching recent upheaval in B.C.’s provincial Tory caucus, and federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s struggle to regain momentum nationally.

“That, I think, is maybe at play here as well for the provincial Tories — just not being able to sort of define themselves and manage that internal tension between maybe the more right-leaning elements of their caucus and their supporters vs. those more centrist folks that the party really does need to attract, particularly in Winnipeg,” she said.

MLAs are scheduled to return to the legislature for a fall sitting starting Sept. 29. The NDP holds 34 of 57 seats. The Tories have 20 and the Liberals one. Two MLAs are independents.

winnipegfreepress.com

[Wpg_Guy]

Unspent public funds raise questions
Budget reveals province underspent on crucial departments related to justice, public safety
Carol Sanders
Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2026

While concerns about homelessness and public safety continue to make headlines in Manitoba, the two government departments mainly responsible for addressing them came in under budget last year.

The 2025-26 public accounts, released Monday, show Housing, Addictions and Homelessness underspent its budget of $869 million by $18 million. Manitoba Justice underspent its budget of $994 million by $34 million.

The 247-page public accounts report attributes the underspending in justice mainly to “reduced impacts of contingency liabilities,” such as a court ruling or legal settlement.

The report did not explain how and why Housing, Addictions and Homelessness underspent its budget last year as the province addresses those critical issues.

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith was not made available for an interview Tuesday, nor was Justice Minister Matt Wiebe.

Cabinet communications staff was asked why justice department money that wasn’t spent last year couldn’t have been put toward addressing a shortage of Crown prosecutors handling more cases and the shortage of judges that has forced the provincial court to cut the number of sittings in rural Manitoba.

A brief statement from the press secretary for Finance Minister Adrien Sala said underspending in justice “reflects a partial reversal of an accrued legal liability,” without offering any detail, and that Housing, Addictions and Homelessness’ underspending “reflects changes in capital timelines.”

Hearing the justice department left $34 million on the table last year “when there are obviously parts of the system crying out for more resources” is “interesting,” Ben Wickstrom, Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys vice-president (prosecutions) said Tuesday. He estimated hiring the 50 additional Crown attorneys MACA says are needed would probably cost one-third of that amount.

“I appreciate that the government’s position may be that this was budgeted somewhere else in the justice budget, but it’s really a question of priorities, and what their priorities are. It really hasn’t felt that the government’s priority has been on front-line resources for the courts, whether that be for judges, for crown prosecutors and for legal aid,” Wickstrom said.

“The underspending deserves an explanation,” Molly McCracken of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said Tuesday.

Manitoba has “very substantial unmet needs for affordable and supportive housing, homelessness services and addictions treatment,” the provincial director of the national think tank that advocates for greater income equality said.

“The explanation for the justice underspending doesn’t tell Manitobans whether this is money that could have been used to address pressures elsewhere in the justice system, such as Crown capacity and access to justice.”

The public accounts are the government’s official annual financial statements detailing the province’s revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities and overall financial position for the fiscal year ending March 31. On Monday, they reported Manitoba’s deficit of $832 million — a reduction from the $1.1 billion reported in 2024-25 and $1.95 billion in 2023-24.

Premier Wab Kinew said Monday the province is cutting the deficit and is on track to balance the books during his first term in office. To do that, he’ll need to find $832 million more in spending cuts and revenue growth to get rid of the deficit. Meanwhile, the province has to pay $2.3 billion a year to service its $36.5-billion debt.

McCracken cautioned the province against treating underspending as good fiscal management simply to help reduce the deficit or to offset other departments, such as health, spending more than budgeted.

“A balanced budget is not an end in itself. The Manitoba government’s job is to deliver the services Manitobans need,” she said.

The Tories’ housing, addictions and homelessness critic questioned the underspending.

“With the epidemic that we’re dealing with right now when it comes to crime, when it comes to drugs and addiction issues, one of my questions is how many treatment beds could we have done for $18 million?” Jeff Bereza said Tuesday.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time in a lot of the seniors places, including Manitoba Housing seniors places, where that money could have been used so much for repair,” the Portage la Prairie MLA said.

“We could have hired many more prosecutors or been in the queue to hire many more prosecutors,” he said of the unspent portion in the justice budget. “The people of Manitoba are scared. Whenever they talk about the drug or addiction issue or about crime and safety, it really is top of mind of I would say for all Manitobans.”

An online survey for CBC News by Abacus Data last month found almost six out of 10 people in Manitoba feel less safe now compared to four years ago.

Winnipeg Free Press

[BlackDog204]

If an election were called today, the NDP would decimate the Conservatives.