Manitoba throne speech dominated by health-care promises Meth crackdown, new rent rules, new schools and child spaces, study into sky-high grocery prices among pledges
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/11/2025 (329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Manitoba government has vowed to make the health-care system safer by boosting staff-to-patient ratios and eliminating mandatory overtime for nurses, in a throne speech packed with promises on the economy and public safety.
The speech, read by Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville, includes plans for a Manitoba-wide crackdown on meth, new rules to stop “unfair” rent increases, four new schools, 402 new child-care spaces in Winnipeg and Brandon, and a renewed commitment to balance the budget by 2027 without raising taxes.
“We’ve got all these great ideas on health care and the economy and we’ve got to execute those while still being responsible with spending, growing the economy and being balanced when it comes comes to revenue — that’s a very narrow path,” Premier Wab Kinew told reporters.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Premier Wab Kinew talks to journalists before the throne speech Tuesday. Creating a safer health-care system for patients and staff members is one of the speech’s central themes.
The spring budget won’t include tax increases, said the premier who promised to fix health care and vowed to enshrine patient safety into law.
“We just want to take steps to ensure that your safety as a patient is going to be improved,” Kinew said. “At the same time, because we’re looking to fix health care (and) lower wait times, we’ve got to take care of the staff as well. The staff are the crucial piece to deliver you the health-care experience that you want.”
“We’ve got all these great ideas on health care and the economy and we’ve got to execute those while still being responsible with spending, growing the economy and being balanced when it comes comes to revenue – that’s a very narrow path.”
The province will create a new patient safety charter that puts into law Manitobans’ right to “good health care.”
Mandatory overtime will be eliminated for staff, starting with front-line nurses. Staff-to-patient ratios will be created in priority areas, including hospital emergency rooms. The premier said 3,500 new health care staff, including 1,200 nurses, have been added since the NDP took office two years ago.
“We have added the staff, we are spending more money than ever on health care. I’m confident that those on the front lines are doing their job,” Kinew said. “We need the administration to do their job now and there will be standards.”
The Manitoba Nurses Union said there aren’t enough staff and pointed to the 37 per cent vacancy rate in obstetric nurse positions at the Thompson hospital, among “many, many vacancies” across the province.
“We’re still in a nursing shortage,” president Darlene Jackson said.
She noted that Kinew promised legislation to end mandatory overtime seven years ago when he was opposition leader.
“It’s a positive concept, but I don’t see we’re at that point right now,” Jackson said.
Mikaela MacKenzie/Free Press files President of the Manitoba Nurses Union, Darlene Jackson: “We’re still in a nursing shortage."
Legislating such changes will require consultation, said Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets who practises in Neepawa.
“As a doctor who works in a small town, I’m very sensitive to new rules that can actually compromise keeping our hospital open and keeping those services available,” she said at the legislature. “I think a measured, balanced approach with gradual implementation and proper consultation is the way to go.”
The long-promised supervised drug consumption site will start operating in downtown Winnipeg in January, the NDP pledged.
A “meth sweep,” involving a new task force with members of the Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP, will target people who make and sell the drug. New legislation will target the sale of dangerous weapons, including machetes, on online marketplaces, and ban them from public spaces, such as parks and buses.
Kinew said the province will commission a study to look into grocery costs. Potential measures could be included in the spring budget.
The NDP announced construction of four schools and the addition of 402 child-care spaces in River East, Pembina Trails and Seven Oaks in Winnipeg, and Brandon.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS For the first time in the province’s history, the Manitoba government published its throne speech in three languages: English, French and Anishinaabemowin. 
To help “Trump-proof” the economy, the NDP government plans to build new dual-fuel combustion turbines at an existing site near Brandon to produce 750 megawatts of power to help heat homes in winter, which would reduce the reliance on U.S. energy imports.
Much of the throne speech included promises previously announced or hinted at, including the creation of a Crown-Indigenous corporation to ensure Indigenous involvement in the expansion of the Port of Churchill. A feasibility study will explore the option of extending the shipping season on the Arctic Ocean port.
Manitoba’s promised $2,500 security rebate program for businesses will start in December, the throne speech said.
Tory Leader Obby Khan reacted by picking apart the throne speech.
“There was not one iota of concrete economic growth in this throne speech that hasn’t been announced before,” he said. “Health care is worse, crime is higher. Affordability is at all time unattainable for Manitobans … That’s all glossed over and ignored.”
Other measures in the government’s legislative agenda include the elimination of mandatory sick notes for short-term absences from work, and a new online portal that will give Manitoba patients access to lab results and immunization records.
One striking highlight is the plan to build an overpass at highways 1 and 5, north of Carberry, following the crash that killed 17 seniors two years ago.
“This intersection is different than any other intersection because of the loss of life,” Kinew said.
The province will construct the overpass in response to outcry from the community over initial plans to build a restricted-crossing U-turn (RCUT) instead, the premier said. He expects more overpasses will be built, and asked the transportation department to “give me a modular design that we can repeat over and over and over again.”
Work will also begin to twin the Trans-Canada Highway between the Manitoba-Ontario boundary and West Hawk Lake.
Manitoba will conduct its most comprehensive post-wildfire review, following this year’s devastating season.
The province has signed a new contract for park passes with a Manitoba company, replacing one in Texas, and it will hold a vote for a new provincial park-themed licence plate.
The throne speech was published in Ojibwa, the language that named Manitoba, for the first time.
— with files from Nicole Buffie
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Reaction to throne speech
“The premier’s comments on how justice should be delivered in this province are callous and not in line with safeguarding democracy. Apologizing to families who have been impacted by crime these last two years is simply not enough.”
— Manitoba Liberal Leader Willard Reaves
“The workforce challenges for businesses aren’t going away… we would have liked to have seen more of a bit of a strategy, in terms of how we address some of those gaps.”
— Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president Chuck Davidson
“We’re at a… historic economic moment in… our city that is top of mind for people right now… The throne speech should have met that moment and responded with the lead being ‘This is how we’re driving our economy.’”
— Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard
“When you’re sick with a cold or a flu — even if you were to see a medical professional, they’re going to tell you to stay home, drink fluids. So going to a doctor’s office to get told to go back home to rest seems ridiculous”
— Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck
“This government has really stepped up to the plate on health care. Legislating patient-to-staff ratios will be a game changer in long-term care, keeping seniors safe and comfortable.”
— CUPE 204 president Margaret Schroeder
“With the efforts to increase shipping out of Churchill, we need to make sure we don’t harm the belugas, the polar bears, and the birds that the local tourism economy and regional cultures rely on. A well-designed Marine Conservation Area is needed to achieve the right balance of nature, culture, and economic activities in western Hudson Bay.”
— Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society (Manitoba) executive director Ron Thiessen
“(There’s) great support from the province for the Port of Churchill.”
— Chris Avery, Arctic Gateway Group CEO
“We are at a point where we need to have more power here in Manitoba. In a drought, obviously we’re affected, because we depend on water flow. It’s part of sovereignty too, because we do buy power from the U.S.”
— Manitoba Environmental Industries Association president Jack Winram
As a general assignment reporter, Chris covers a little bit of everything for the Free Press.
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
In 1997, Carol started at the Free Press working nights as a copy editor. In 2000, she jumped at a chance to return to reporting. In early 2020 — before a global pandemic was declared — she agreed to pitch in, temporarily, at the Free Press legislature bureau. She’s been there ever since.
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New overpass, ban on sick notes and more promised in Manitoba throne speech
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Updated on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 5:47 PM CST: Adds quotes, details, photos and sidebar
