Manitoba Minute: Issue 117

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

📅 This Week In Manitoba: 📅

• Premier Wab Kinew and Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson have launched a pilot that lets young people in Selkirk ride public transit for free, the first such program in Manitoba. Students aged 12 to 21 who can show they are enrolled in a Selkirk school can now get a free NextStop pass, with the City's share of the cost estimated at about $500,000. The provincial budget set aside $10 million to reimburse transit systems for forgoing youth fares, and the Government says it is working with Winnipeg, Brandon, Winkler and Flin Flon to have free transit in place for students 18 and younger by September. Kinew said the focus is on young people, and when pressed on advocates' calls to restore the 50% provincial transit funding that ended in 2017, he replied, "This is what we're doing". Monthly youth passes currently cost $88.55 in Winnipeg, while Selkirk charges $2 a ride or $20 a month for those who do not qualify for the free pass.
  
  
• Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba will extend disaster financial assistance beyond its normal limits, allowing residents who could have bought flood insurance but did not to still qualify for aid. Kinew argued that policy and emergency response must change as the climate changes. Torrential rain hit parts of the province, with rivers overflowing and basements filling, and several municipalities declared local emergencies, though Winnipeg did not, and so its residents are not included in the program. The Insurance Bureau of Canada did not push back on the change but noted that overland flood coverage is widely available privately, while a 2024 Public Safety Canada study warned that providing government aid can discourage homeowners from buying their own insurance. Manitoba has also declined to give residents access to a new federal flood-risk tool, ready since May, that lets users search an address and see its flood risk on a four-point scale. A 2020 survey found that only 6% of Canadians in flood-prone areas knew about the dangers they faced.
  
  
• The same flooding has farmers in Manitoba's Interlake region calling on the provincial government to build flood-mitigation infrastructure after last week's flooding left farmland underwater. At a news conference at a Woodlands-area dairy farm, producers said individual operations had each lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, with some likely losing millions, in the Sturgeon Creek watershed that drains agricultural land between Lake Manitoba and Winnipeg. The group, joined by Progressive Conservative MLA Trevor King, asked the Province to invest in culverts and drainage to prevent future flooding and to open the Portage Diversion, a channel that moves Assiniboine River water into Lake Manitoba. King also pressed the Government to clarify whether farmers will qualify for the provincewide disaster financial assistance program Premier Wab Kinew announced last week. That program covers only uninsurable damage and essential restoration, and limits farm eligibility to operations with annual gross revenues under $15 million. Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard said the Government is reviewing and strengthening disaster assistance and is repairing damaged roads and infrastructure, while one farmer said he would rather see permanent flood-control works than a one-time payout.
  
  
• The Manitoba government says the vacancy rate for RCMP officers funded through its Provincial Police Service Agreement has fallen by more than half, dropping to 9.69% in 2026 from 21.99% in 2023. The Province credited the addition of 110 new officers to the Manitoba RCMP in 2025-26, along with higher funding for rural policing and recruitment. Funding for the agreement has climbed to more than $206 million in Budget 2026 from less than $170 million in 2023, including an additional $8 million committed this year. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said the Government has invested in rural policing every year and argued Manitoba is becoming a leader in RCMP recruitment and retention. The commanding officer of the Manitoba RCMP, Assistant Commissioner Scott McMurchy, said the recent investments are integral to enhancing public safety. The Association of Manitoba Municipalities welcomed the announcement as a step toward strengthening policing in communities across the province.
  
  
• The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel alert for Manitoba over the province's ongoing hepatitis A outbreak. The notice, posted earlier this month, is a Level 1 alert, the lowest of the agency's four tiers, and advises travellers to take usual hygiene precautions rather than avoid the province. As of June 4th, the outbreak that began in April 2025 had reached 784 reported cases, with 4 deaths and 165 people hospitalized, including 8 admitted to intensive care. The outbreak initially centred on several northern communities but has increasingly spread to Winnipeg, with people experiencing homelessness particularly affected. Manitoba's Chief Provincial Public Health Officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, said the alert does not change the level of concern, which has been high for over a year, and that it echoes the public messaging officials have already been giving. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the CDC's decision is within its purview and pointed to ongoing provincial work to reach people with vaccines and information.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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