Cost of living front and centre as Manitoba legislators set to return Tuesday

WINNIPEG — Manitoba politicians return to the house Tuesday for a sitting that is expected to focus on affordability, but will begin with questions surrounding the Opposition Progressive Conservatives.

Tory Leader Obby Khan announced Monday he is quitting the post, and the caucus, effective Tuesday and will sit as an Independent.

Khan cited internal fighting for his departure, saying “I will not sacrifice my principles to keep this title.”

The move means there will be 19 Progressive Conservatives facing Premier Wab Kinew’s 34 New Democrats. There is one Liberal and, with Khan, now three Independents.

Kinew and Opposition Progressive Conservative house leader Derek Johnson have pointed to cost of living as a key concern of Manitobans.

“My thoughts are on you and the cost of gas and the costs of groceries and trying to get (U.S. President Donald Trump) to stop this war in Iran so the prices are going down,” Kinew said Monday.

The premier has pointed to proposed legislation about rent control as some of the unfinished business in helping keep costs down. He blamed the Tories for the holdup.

“We’d like them to stop blocking that bill so we can pass it and bring real rent control into Manitoba. It’s a big priority for us,” said Kinew.

The PCs said both affordability and crime will be significant.

“We’re going to focus on the issues that Manitobans continue to raise with us every day, and what we’re hearing is affordability and community safety,” said Johnson.

He said the government’s proposed rent control changes, including limits to how much landlords can increase rent to cover renovations, would mean landlords won’t invest in proper maintenance.

“People are going to stop investing in their buildings,” Johnson said.

That means buildings will deteriorate and make it harder to find a decent place to live, he added.

“That’s not fair, and this legislation will, I think, cause that to happen.”

The government has already approached affordability this year through several targeted moves, including increasing homeowner and renter tax credits and cutting the provincial tax on prepared foods like rotisserie chickens and bags of chips.

The Tories have been pushing their much more sweeping plan to boost how much Manitobans can take home income tax-free to $30,000, up from the $15,780 it has been since 2024.

Besides duelling it out on how best to help Manitobans financially, the state of health care is also to be top of mind.

Over the summer, Kinew highlighted that the province added more than 4,700 net new health-care staff since his NDP was elected, and it introduced more than 100 safety officers at hospitals.

The government also announced during the break that it signed a construction contract for a CancerCare Manitoba facility, expanded capacity to train doctors in emergency medicine, and improved access for procedures like endoscopies and knee replacements.

Johnson said among the private member’s bills they plan to push will be one to force public disclosure of wait times for specialists and treatments as a way to keep government accountable.

He said while the NDP campaigned on health care, it’s not showing up in the results.

“Manitobans deserve more than excuses and blame. They deserve shorter wait times,” said Johnson.

In his throne speech at the start of the session, Kinew noted that when the NDP took office in 2023, Manitoba faced the worst doctor shortage in the country — a gap it’s been closing through more training and aggressive recruitment from abroad.

He said Monday that getting wait times down is still a focus for his government.

Kinew also promised in the throne speech to open a safe consumption site in January of this year. That didn’t happen, but the site did open in August.

For now, it’s operating out of temporary structures as work continues to prepare the building, in the north part of Winnipeg’s downtown, for longer-term use.

The premier also committed that he would enshrine Canada’s first Crown-Indigenous corporation into law. He said it would be a way to create true partnerships with First Nations and the Red River Métis, as the province hopes to move forward on a major expansion of the Port of Churchill.

Asked last week if the legislation would move forward, Kinew said his government is still working on it and was noncommittal on whether it would pass this session.

The summer saw the government also move forward on some lower-stakes commitments, including unveiling the chosen parks-themed licence plate. A picture of a loon won.

And while not in the throne speech, and something he had dismissed six months earlier, Kinew announced in mid-September that the province would be sticking with daylight time permanently.

That didn’t need legislation. Kinew made the change official in a proclamation on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2026.

Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press