New overpass, ban on sick notes and more promised in Manitoba throne speech

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is promising to build an overpass to improve safety at an intersection where 17 people died in a bus crash.

Premier Wab Kinew said Tuesday the overpass is to replace the current at-grade intersection of Highways 1 and 5, where drivers on the latter road have a stop sign as they approach and then must obey a yield sign in the median.

A bus carrying seniors crossed through the intersection in June 2023 and collided with a semi-trailer that had the right of way.

Earlier this year, the provincial Transportation Department suggested keeping the intersection at-grade and banning left turns off Highway 5 to reduce the chance of collisions.

Area residents opposed the plan and called for an overpass. The government said in the summer it would reconsider.

“This intersection is different now than any other intersection in Manitoba because of the loss of life and how sad it was to see those seniors passing away,” Kinew said Tuesday.

The mayor of Carberry was pleased and surprised with the reversal. “The town of Carberry is over the moon over this,” Ray Muirhead said.

“It was a long time coming … it’s been decades we’ve been trying to get something done with that intersection.”

The new overpass is one of many promises contained in the NDP government’s speech from the throne, which outlines the government’s agenda for the coming year.

The province is also planning to stop provincially regulated employers from requiring workers to get sick notes for absences of less than a week, a move doctors have demanded as a way to free up time to treat patients.

“We all end up paying for sick notes through longer wait times to see a doctor and as taxpayers too,” Doctors Manitoba, which represents physicians across the province, said in a news release.

The government is also promising to launch a study on ways to keep groceries affordable, implement digital health cards and launch a patient portal where people can see their lab results.

Also on health care, the province is planning to ban mandatory overtime for health-care workers, starting with nurses, and to set up a charter of patient rights. There will be legislation setting minimum staff-to-patient ratios in key areas of health care, Kinew said.

Some health-care unions said more workers are needed to meet those goals.

“Without a credible health human resources plan, I think it’s very unlikely that there’s going to be successes in filling many of the vacancies across the province,” Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, said.

The government is also making another attempt at setting up Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site. The NDP backed off its initial plan earlier this year when residents near the first proposed site in Winnipeg opposed the project. It is now eyeing another location nearby, west of Main St. in downtown Winnipeg, although it would not divulge the exact address.

The new site is to open in January, but has still not been submitted for approval by Health Canada.

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives said the government has failed to consult area residents on the new site, which is normally a requirement for federal approval.

“When the premier doesn’t get his way, he just goes around the rules,” Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said.

To address crime, the government is planning to ban machetes in some public areas and ban the sale of them on Facebook Marketplace.

“It seems like a no-brainer, but you shouldn’t be able to have these things in a public place like a park,” Kinew said.

To tackle the growing demand for energy, the government is planning an additional turbine — on top of two already proposed — in Brandon.

They will burn natural gas initially, but Kinew said they could be converted in the future to other fuels such as hydrogen.

Kinew said the government remains committed to balancing the budget in 2027 and promised there will be no tax increases in the spring budget.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2025.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press