Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press

Manitoba is urging tourists to reconsider visiting as it works to find shelter for a flood of wildfire evacuees now reaching 21,000.

“This is one of the largest evacuations in our province’s history,” Lisa Naylor, the Manitoba minister in charge of emergency management, said Monday.

“The government anticipates there may be a need for more hotel rooms as the wildfire season continues. For that reason, we are urging Manitobans and Canadians to reconsider non-essential travel and event plans within Manitoba."

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew promoted his province Friday as the route for a future trade corridor, which could include a pipeline, in order to get goods from Western Canada to overseas markets.

"The politics are (that) something needs to get built in Western Canada. I think everybody understands that," Kinew told a breakfast meeting of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce.

Manitoba politicians reached a deal to speed passage of a free trade bill Monday, hours before the legislature was to break for the summer. More than 30 other bills were also set to be approved on the last day of the spring sitting.

The trade bill, based on a deal with Ontario, would remove trade and labour barriers for some goods and services between Manitoba and other jurisdictions that pass similar laws. Other provinces have recently joined the effort, as part of a national plan to boost the economy and respond to tariffs imposed by the United States.

A judge in Minnesota has sentenced a man to 10 years for his role in a human smuggling operation that saw a family freeze to death in southern Manitoba near the Canada-U.S. border.

Harshkumar Patel, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, did not address the court.

A co-accused in the case, Steve Shand, was to be sentenced later Wednesday.

Judge John Tunheim described the crimes as "extraordinarily serious.”

A jury convicted the two men last fall on four charges related to bringing people illegally into the United States from Canada.

A former Manitoba cabinet minister says he thought he was following the rules when he tried to push the approval of a silica sand mine after his party was defeated in an election.

Jeff Wharton has spoken to the media for the first time since the province's ethics commissioner issued a damning report last week into the actions of some members of the former Progressive Conservative government after losing the October 2023 election.

Manitoba Opposition leader Obby Khan stripped a Progressive Conservative caucus member of his critic duties Thursday, as questions continued to swirl about the former government’s actions related to a proposed silica sand mine.

Jeff Wharton, one of three Tories found this week to have violated the province's conflict of interest law, is to remain in caucus but will no longer serve as critic for business, mining, trade and job creation.

"I have removed his critic role in light of this report that came out ... and we'll move forward from there," Khan said.

Former Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson and two of her Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers acted improperly by pushing for the approval of a silica sand mining project and should be fined, says a report by the province's ethics commissioner.

The report says Stefanson, then-deputy premier Cliff Cullen and then-economic development minister Jeff Wharton tried to get approval for the Sio Silica project after the Tories lost the 2023 election, but before the new NDP government was to be sworn in.

The Manitoba government faced more questions about its property tax reforms Tuesday after some homeowners did not receive a promised $1,500 credit on their annual bill.

Finance Minister Adrien Sala said there was a problem with some homeowners not registering their properties as their primary residence, which is a condition to get the credit. He put part of the blame on municipal governments.

The Manitoba government is hoping to curb the risk of more wildfires by tightening restrictions in some areas.

The new rules expand on restrictions already in effect in many parts of southeast Manitoba, part of the Interlake region and Spruce Woods Provincial Park.

Starting Friday, no fires will be allowed between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. in those areas, and fires at night must be burned in approved campfire pits.

The number of measles cases in Manitoba has jumped to 20, and health officials say some of the recent cases had no contact with previous ones.

Dr. Davinder Singh, a medical officer of health for the Southern health region, says that's concerning because it's unclear where those people became infected.

Most of the cases have been in the Southern health region and Singh says it is connected to the area's low vaccination rate.