Manitoba Minute: Issue 114

Manitoba Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Manitoba politics.

📅 This Week In Manitoba: 📅

• Manitoba's budget bill passed in the early hours of Friday after days of contentious debate, clearing the way for the elimination of the provincial sales tax on snacks, soft drinks, and prepared meals at grocery and convenience stores, effective July 1st. The government estimates the change will save an average family of four about $100 a year - a figure Progressive Conservative MLAs called inadequate, given most grocery staples such as meat, milk, and produce are already PST-exempt. The Tories attempted to add an income tax cut to the bill but were voted down by the NDP majority. Finance Minister Adrien Sala warned that the PC proposal would have cost the province important revenue and risked a downgrade by credit-rating agencies. Longtime PC legislator Kelvin Goertzen spoke for four hours straight via Zoom during one overnight sitting that ran more than 24 hours. The bill also includes increases to tax credits for homeowners and renters.
  
  
• Speaking of the Legislature, political observers are describing Manitoba's question period as increasingly out of control, with regular jeering, heckling, and shouting disrupting debate. University of Manitoba political studies professor Christopher Adams attributed the escalating tensions partly to personal animosity between Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan and NDP Premier Wab Kinew, which intensified following a 2023 confrontation between the two. Pollster Andrew Enns said the behaviour makes politicians look like "squabbling kids" and damages public confidence in elected officials, while researcher Mary Agnes Welch noted that both sides exploit confrontational moments for fundraising and social media. House Speaker Tom Lindsey has imposed bans on certain language in the chamber, a strategy Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher criticized as counterproductive to meaningful accountability.
  
  
• Manitoba's Buy Canadian Act received royal assent nearly a year ago, but has not been proclaimed into force and therefore has no legal effect. The government has provided no explanation for the delay. Finance Minister Adrien Sala said the province has reduced its US procurement by 31% over the past year without invoking the legislation, but Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan dismissed that claim as "fake patriotism," pointing to the Province's ongoing contract with a US company to host Engage MB - its online public consultation platform, which has been US-hosted since 2021. Under the Act, the province would be required to develop a Buy Canadian purchasing policy and could give preferential treatment to Canadian suppliers under government purchasing rules. Khan argues that without proclamation, the Province remains free to award larger contracts to American companies in categories not covered by low-value exemptions.
  
  
• The Manitoba government has introduced legislation that would prohibit the sale of flavoured vaping products from urban businesses that allow people under the age of 18 to enter. The bill does not apply in rural areas and would continue to allow adults to purchase flavoured vapes at specialty shops. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the goal is to reduce youth exposure - Manitoba's youth vaping rates are among the highest in the country. The Manitoba Lung Association said the bill does not go far enough, noting that young people typically access flavoured products through social networks and online channels regardless of storefront restrictions. Several provinces - including Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick - have gone further by banning most flavoured vape products for adults as well.
  
  
• Premiers from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba presented an overall message of "unity, certainty and stability" at the Western Premiers Conference in Kananaskis, though Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew did have a public disagreement over treaty rights and the constitutional duty to consult at the closing press conference. Smith said she believes courts need to clarify whether the duty to consult applies to citizen initiative petitions, referencing a recent Alberta court decision that quashed a separatist group's referendum question on the grounds that the province had failed to consult First Nations. Kinew, who is Anishinaabe and had met with Alberta First Nations representatives the day before, rejected Smith's framing, saying the duty to consult rests with the provincial government - not with private petition gatherers. Kinew seemed to have misunderstood Smith, however, as she wasn't suggesting that signature collectors were responsible for consultation. Rather, she was saying that only government actions, not citizens collecting signatures, should trigger the duty to consult. Alberta has announced it will appeal the court decision and expects the question to reach the Supreme Court of Canada.

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