Manitoba Minute: Issue 124

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

📅 This Week In Manitoba: 📅

• Education Minister Tracy Schmidt has overturned a rural Manitoba school board motion that told staff to disregard students' legal right to confidential health care. In a July 22nd directive to the Hanover School Division board, Schmidt said the board could not force staff to ignore Manitoba's three-decade-old "mature minor" law, which lets students 16 and older access health care independently of their caregivers. The board had passed a motion on June 2nd declaring that parents should be treated as their child's primary health-care provider and that the "mature minor" category would not be honoured in any division building. Schmidt, a former lawyer, wrote that her department and Manitoba Health found the plan would violate provincial health legislation and Charter rights, and told the board it appeared to have passed the motion "to pick a fight". She said the Province could ultimately dissolve the board and appoint a trustee if it does not comply, though she hopes to avoid that step. A petition opposing the policy gathered more than 1,100 signatures.
  
  
• A northern Manitoba tour operator will be back in Court of King's Bench on Wednesday, accusing the provincial government of acting in bad faith over polar bear viewing permits. Wally Daudrich, owner of Churchill's Lazy Bear Lodge, is seeking a court order that would give his company four off-road tundra-vehicle permits and four road permits, double the number he held in past seasons. The dispute dates to February 2025, when the Province rescinded Lazy Bear's permit to operate in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, leaving all 18 remaining permits with two rival operators. In January, a Court of King's Bench judge ruled that decision was "based on an improper purpose" and unsupported by the polar bear conservation rationale the Province had offered, and ordered a reconsideration. Daudrich says the Province then delayed for roughly five months, refused to let him make written submissions, and in June again capped the permits at 18. He alleges the government singled him out because he ran for the Progressive Conservative leadership in 2025, and says its decisions were rooted in bias and bad faith. A provincial spokesperson declined to comment because the matter is before the courts.
  
  
• The United States plans to close its consulate in Winnipeg, the only such closure in North America, as part of a move to shut five smaller diplomatic posts and shift their work to larger embassies. The US State Department told Congress the decision reflects a commitment to efficient resource management, with the Winnipeg post's responsibilities transferring to the embassy in Ottawa. The consulate does not provide visa or consular services but employs a representative who builds trade relations and tracks regional developments. The closure lands amid tensions between Premier Wab Kinew and the Trump administration over tariffs, after Manitoba stopped importing US-made alcohol and Kinew branded the president "Enemy No. 1" on the economy. Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan called the closure disappointing and said it underscores Kinew's failure on cross-border trade, noting the provincial government spends nearly $1 million a year on a Washington trade office that he says has produced no new deals. Kinew's office responded that the consulate falls under federal jurisdiction and that its closure does not change the role of Manitoba's own trade office.
  
  
• Tenants at a West Broadway apartment building in Winnipeg are fighting a proposed 78% rent increase that the landlord says is needed to recover the cost of building upgrades. Manitoba caps most rent increases at 1.8% this year, but property owners can apply to the Residential Tenancies Branch for more if their costs have risen faster. Wingspan Properties, which took over the century-old Furby Street building last year, wants to raise one bachelor suite from $533 to $948 a month after adding new flooring, lighting and a security system to the common areas. Tenants say the renovations were "mainly cosmetic" and did not reach their own units, some of which have leaking radiators and flaking paint. A tenant advocate said some Winnipeg landlords are seeking increases above 100% this year. The NDP government has proposed regulations that would expand rent-control protections to more units and limit how much of a renovation's cost a landlord can pass on, but has not yet enacted them, blaming Progressive Conservative delays on related legislation.
  
  
• A new $267-million medical research lab in Winnipeg will produce experimental vaccines and treatments to help Canada prepare for future pandemics, federal and provincial officials announced Wednesday. The federally owned facility will be built behind the National Microbiology Lab on Arlington Street and is expected to be finished sometime in 2033. Officials marked the awarding of a $10.2-million design contract to the Winnipeg-based firm Architecture49, chosen through an open bid process. The lab will not manufacture vaccines at scale but will produce the small test batches needed to identify the most promising candidates before mass production. Supporters say it will create construction and technical jobs and could draw private life-sciences companies to locate near the microbiology lab, the only site in Canada equipped to study the most dangerous pathogens. Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid called the project "a big deal" for the city, the province and life sciences in Canada. 

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