Premier Wab Kinew at his office in the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg on Dec. 20, 2024. In 2025, Mr. Kinew will be forced to defend the return of the provincial fuel tax that was suspended last year to address cost-of-living pressures.Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail
After enjoying high approval ratings for nearly a year and a half in office, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says his government is preparing to bring in tough policies that may be unpopular.
Mr. Kinew, who became the first-ever First Nations Premier of a Canadian province when his New Democrats won Manitoba’s election in the fall of 2023, told The Globe and Mail that his fledgling government has found its footing and plans to move ahead on several major policies this year.
That includes pressing ahead on cornerstone promises related to improving access to health care, Indigenous reconciliation and balancing the province’s budget.
But in 2025, Mr. Kinew will also be forced to defend the return of the provincial fuel tax that was suspended last year to address cost-of-living pressures. Additionally, his government expects to open Manitoba’s first supervised drug-use site in downtown Winnipeg, which has already caused controversy.
“The way I’ve been talking about it with my team is: 2023 was when I was elected, 2024 was when I learned how to be a Premier. And so, in 2025, I do think it’s going to be important for us to make sure that we’re really moving the ball forward,” Mr. Kinew said in a wide-ranging year-end interview.
“There’s still a lot to fix, but it’s going to take a long time to fix it.”
Mr. Kinew acknowledged that it will 'take longer than one term in government' to fix the problems within the health-care system, which he blames on Manitoba’s previous Tory government.Shannon VanRaes/The Globe and Mail
During the campaign, Mr. Kinew’s NDP promised to lower surgical and emergency-room wait times across the province by hiring hundreds of physicians, nurses and home-care workers. The party also said it would reopen emergency rooms at three hospitals in Winnipeg.
Mr. Kinew said his government has made some advancements on those goals. He pointed to the hiring of more than 870 net new health care professionals; an excess of 200 fully staffed new beds in medical facilities with another 100 planned for this year; and $635-million in funding accounted for in the provincial budget toward new health-care capital projects.
Still, he acknowledged that it will “take longer than one term in government” to fix the problems within the health-care system, which he blames on Manitoba’s previous Tory government.
The Progressive Conservatives said Mr. Kinew is making excuses for slow progress. Kathleen Cook, the opposition party’s health critic, cited delays on health cards as the most recent example of the NDP failing to deliver on its promises, which she said shows that party’s ineptitude for broader changes to medical care.
Manitobans were told they would be able to apply for new plastic health cards, currently existing only as easily torn paper printouts, in December. But Mr. Kinew said that process is running behind schedule, owing in part to the Canada Post strike. It is now expected to begin later in January, he added.
Mr. Kinew’s government will have to balance its health care promises with its pledge to cut the red ink in the budget.
Manitoba is forecasting a deficit of $1.3-billion for the 2024-25 fiscal year, an increase from the projected $796-million deficit when the previous budget was tabled last spring. Among the driving factors in the change was $438-million in additional spending toward health care.
Mr. Kinew would not say how the province’s financial shortfalls will affect his health care promises, but he insisted that his government is “still on track” to balance its next budget.
Gasoline prices – which increased on Wednesday when the province’s fuel tax returned, albeit with a lower rate of 12.5 cents a litre instead of the 14 cents prior to the suspension – will also cost the province around $85-million, according to projections from the previous budget.
Mr. Kinew’s government has budgeted $2.5-million to launch the province’s first supervised drug-use site this year, but has yet to announce an opening date. Even the exact location, initially proposed to be on Winnipeg’s Disraeli Freeway across a busy six-lane street from a high school, may be changed after mounting criticism – including from the Manitoba Métis Federation and residents in the area.
The Tories, which have long been opposed to drug-use facilities as a means for harm reduction, have repeatedly shared concerns in the legislature about the new site, stating that children walk nearby.
Mr. Kinew said the province will not move forward on the plans unless there are appropriate safety protocols, including a heavier police presence. “We are willing to go in a different direction if there is that degree of outcry from the community,” he said.
When Mr. Kinew unveiled his cabinet ministers after the election, he had appointed himself Minister of Indigenous Reconciliation, bringing attention to a portfolio often considered marginal.
He specified the $40-million project led by his government to search a Manitoba landfill for the remains of First Nations women dumped by a convicted serial killer as the most important initiative undertaken on that file last year.
He would not say what new policies he will specifically focus on in the area of reconciliation in the coming year, but said they would expand on previous work – such as on Indigenous-led economic projects, including loan guarantee programs and resource-sharing schemes for wind power and mining.
“I don’t think there’s any shortcuts to reconciliation,” he told The Globe. “I’m somebody that has a status card, but that doesn’t make these conversations automatically easier.”
Another new provincial issue that has emerged is the impact of a second Donald Trump presidency and his threat to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on all imports from Canada. Mr. Kinew said Manitoba is working toward more visibility at the U.S. border because of Mr. Trump’s early demands for a crackdown on what the president-elect claims is a deluge of immigrants and drugs pouring down south from this country.
Manitoba is also setting up a permanent office in Washington to strengthen its trade relations, relying particularly on its ties to states such as Minnesota, North Dakota and Illinois. The new efforts, Mr. Kinew joked, will hopefully allow the Trump administration to point to the province on a map.
“Manitoba is ready for Jan. 20,” when Mr. Trump will be inaugurated, he said.
With a report from The Canadian Press