Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press

Manitoba's ethics commissioner has ruled Mike Moroz, the minister of innovation and new technology, did not break the province's conflict of interest law.

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives had accused Moroz of being in a conflict by answering questions about a 9-1-1 service outage while owning shares in Telus.

The Tories also accused Moroz of using inside information that criticized the phone company for the outage and selling company stock.

Some Manitobans appear willing to pay higher electricity rates and shift their energy use to nighttime, an opinion poll commissioned by Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro suggests.

The findings come as the utility is asking the provincial regulator to approve rate increases in each of three next three years in order to replace aging infrastructure, avoid an increase in power outages and bring new generating power online.

The company that owns a rail line and port in northern Manitoba has increased its capacity to transport goods, as governments eye potential growth in trade through Hudson Bay to overseas markets.

Officials with Arctic Gateway Group said Tuesday a new dedicated critical mineral storage facility has been built at the Port of Churchill, tripling the port’s storage capacity for critical minerals.

Evacuees from northern Manitoba continued to pour into Winnipeg Friday as a renewed round of wildfires threatened communities and shrouded much of the province in smoke.

"It's been rough," Misty Harper said, as she and her partner walked outside of a large indoor soccer complex set up to house evacuees, along with her one-year-old daughter in a stroller. 

Some people sat at picnic tables under small canopies or on grass in an adjacent field. Buses filled with more evacuees arrived a few times each hour.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew again declared a provincewide state of emergency Thursday, as renewed wildfires forced thousands out of their homes, some for the second time in weeks.

Kinew said the order, the second since late May, is critical to rally resources.

"We're going to be asking Manitobans to be helping out in a number of ways," Kinew told a news conference. 

"We want to underscore just how serious this wildfire season is."

Two student pilots died Tuesday morning after their single-engine planes collided mid-air during practice exercises, the head of a pilot training school said.

The students, who were not identified, were practising takeoffs and landings when they appear to have tried to land at the same time on the small rural runway south of Steinbach, said Adam Penner, president of Harv's Air. 

The collision left the planes wrecked in a field on private property, roughly 400 metres from the runway.

Two people are dead after two single-engine planes crashed in mid-air south of Steinbach, Man.

Adam Penner, president of Harv's Air pilot training school, says the two were students and were practising takeoffs and landings in small Cessna planes this morning.

He says the two appear to have tried to land at the same time and collided a few hundred metres away from the small runway.

He says the planes are equipped with radios, but it appears the two pilots didn't see each other.

Jonathan Toews is officially back.

The three-time Stanley Cup champion, who last played an NHL game more than two years ago, was introduced Friday as the newest member of his hometown Winnipeg Jets, donning a jersey with his signature No. 19 at a team press conference.

The Jets announced their intention to acquire the 37-year-old centre last month, but it only became official this week with Toews signing a one-year deal worth US$2 million, plus performance bonuses tied to games played and playoff success.

The former head of Manitoba Hydro was paid just over $881,000 last year, despite being dismissed six weeks into the year.

Jay Grewal's earnings in previous years, where she had worked a full year, ranged from $500,000 to $546,000.

The amount last year, revealed in an annual Manitoba Hydro compensation report, suggests a large lump sum payment when Grewal was let go as president and chief executive officer.

A well-known cave-like tunnel that attracts boaters to eastern Manitoba has reopened thanks to some ingenuity involving a backhoe, a grappling bucket and a crew removing fallen rock from a tight, gorge-like opening.

The tunnel between Caddy Lake and South Cross Lake, just north of the Trans-Canada Highway and west of the Ontario boundary, is the first of two cave-like tunnels along a popular water route for people in canoes, kayaks and small motorboats.