Manitoba

The provincial government will introduce legislation that eliminates the use of restrictive covenants for grocery stores, which limit the kinds of stores that can open near a particular company's location, Kinew said.

The throne speech — which outlines the government's priorities for the coming legislative session — also says the government will open more than 100 beds at health-care facilities, unveil a new strategy for cutting ER wait times and commission a new statue to replace the Queen Victoria monument that was toppled in front of the Manitoba Legislature.

The one-year freeze on electricity rates, one of the affordability promises in the throne speech, will start in 2025.

Kinew promised a freeze in the 2023 election campaign, and while in office has insisted the utility has the means to service large new industrial customers in spite of warnings from Manitoba Hydro about a looming capacity crunch and the need to generate more power. Hydro has said its infrastructure requires billions of dollars in fixes.

A personal care home in Winkler, Man., has been forced to close 26 desperately needed beds after its elevator became unstable, and petitioned the provincial government for months before Shared Health finally committed to fund the repair.

Karin Oliveira, CEO of Salem Home, had to make the difficult decision last month to move 26 people off the facility's second floor after she lost confidence in the elevator that kept breaking down.

The province conducted 26,321 CT scans at facilities across Manitoba in August of this year, a 3.3 per cent increase from the 25,470 cases performed the prior August, according to provincial data.

[Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen] Cook called that a "marginal increase" that "does not justify the huge jumps in CT scan wait times," she said in an interview Tuesday.