Manitoba Minute: Issue 118

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

📅 This Week In Manitoba: 📅

• The Manitoba government is moving on several fronts to lower grocery prices, asking milk retailers and processors to open four years of financial books as it weighs extending price controls to two-litre and four-litre milk containers. The Province currently sets a maximum retail price only for one-litre milk, which it froze for a year in January, and Finance Minister Adrien Sala released a 40-page grocery price study on Monday, laying out further measures. Among them is legislation to require unit pricing, such as the price per 100 grams, so shoppers can spot "shrinkflation", along with a $2.5 million commitment to a food transformation centre and a coming cut to the provincial sales tax on ready-made and packaged foods. Gary Sands of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers warned that an expanded milk freeze would hit small grocers hardest, because the big chains refuse cost increases from processors, while independents cannot. John Graham of the Retail Council of Canada said he would be surprised if the review found grounds to expand the legislation, since larger milk containers are already sold at low margins. Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said unit pricing is already common at many retailers and does not actually lower the price of groceries. The milk price review is scheduled to finish this fall.
  
  
• A provincial by-election has been called in northern Manitoba for The Pas-Kameesak, with voting to be held July 21st. The election will fill the seat that has been vacant since the death of NDP MLA Amanda Lathlin in March. Elections Manitoba said advance voting will begin on July 2nd. Jennifer Flett won the NDP nomination, while the Manitoba Liberal Party has nominated a local businessman, Dan Quesnel, as its candidate.
  
  
• The Manitoba government says it will remove the provincial sales tax from prenatal vitamins starting July 1st. Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said in a news release Tuesday that the move is part of broader efforts to support healthy pregnancies and women's reproductive health. The Government pointed to the role of folate, found in prenatal vitamins, which the Public Health Agency of Canada says is important for the healthy growth and development of babies. Folate intake helps reduce the risk of birth defects known as neural tube defects, improving outcomes for newborns. The change takes effect alongside other tax measures the Province has scheduled for the start of the month.
  
  
• Glenn Joyal, Chief Justice of Manitoba's Court of King's Bench, has been nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada to fill the seat left vacant when Justice Sheilah L. Martin retired May 30th. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the nomination Monday morning, saying Joyal has demonstrated the integrity, experience, and sound judgment that service on the highest court demands. Joyal has spent more than 25 years on the bench, serving as chief justice since 2011, and has decided some of Manitoba's most high-profile cases, including its first medically assisted death and a Charter challenge to pandemic restrictions. A Franco-Manitoban raised in St. Boniface, he meets the requirement that Supreme Court justices be functionally bilingual in English and French, and the vacancy was open to candidates from Western or Northern Canada under the convention of regional representation. University of Manitoba law Professor Bryan Schwartz called the nomination a "superb choice", citing Joyal's qualifications and meticulous approach to cases. Joyal is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary committee for his official appointment on June 29th.
  
  
• Manitoba Hydro will consider up to 11 proposals to build new wind farms over the next nine years, all owned by partnerships between Indigenous nations and experienced wind-power developers. On Monday, the Crown corporation published a list of qualified Indigenous-led partnerships competing to add 600 megawatts of generating capacity by 2035, with seven Indigenous nations and six private developers involved. The partnerships have until July to submit proposals, and successful bids will be announced in the spring of 2027, with Manitoba Hydro planning to buy the power at a fixed rate. Two energy consultants warned the provincial regulator in June 16th submissions that wind does little to boost capacity in winter, when demand is highest, and that it would cost more than US power imports, urging the Public Utilities Board to protect ratepayers. The Public Utilities Board is slated to hold public hearings in July and August on Hydro's plans to expand capacity over the next 10 years. Adrien Sala, the minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, declined an interview but said in a statement that he looks forward to more renewable energy options. At least two partnerships have come forward publicly, including a Red River Métis project near Riding Mountain and a Swan Lake First Nation project in the Pembina Valley.

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