Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press

The Manitoba government is forecasting a smaller deficit, hinting at more tax cuts, and eyeing new financial aid to help people deal with the rising cost of living.

A fiscal update from the Progressive Conservative government Tuesday forecasts a deficit of $193 million for the fiscal year that ends in March. That's down from the $548 million predicted in last spring's budget and the $202 million forecast in the last fiscal update in September.

The Manitoba government is forecast to see its equalization payments from the federal government jump by $577 million in the fiscal year that will start in April, new federal figures say.

The total of $3.5 billion represents a 19 per cent increase from the current year and is roughly double the amount Manitoba received when the Progressive Conservatives took office in 2016.

Politicians of all stripes joined hundreds of mourners who gathered on Saturday to pay tribute to Jim Carr, the Liberal member of Parliament who died five days earlier at the age of 71 following a battle with cancer.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among the cross-section of dignitaries at the memorial service, which also included former NDP and Progressive Conservative premiers of Manitoba, MPs from the government and opposition side of the House of Commons and prominent Indigenous leaders.

Lawyers for seven Manitoba churches made another attempt Tuesday to have some of the province's former COVID-19 restrictions declared invalid.

The churches say public health orders in 2020 and 2021 that temporarily closed in-person religious services, then permitted them with caps on attendance, violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

A Court of Queen’s Bench justice previously rejected that argument, saying the restrictions were both necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and allowable under Section 1 of the Charter.

Manitoba's governing Progressive Conservatives won a byelection in the Kirkfield Park constituency in Winnipeg Tuesday night, narrowly hanging on to a seat they had previously won handily.

The race went down to the wire. Tory candidate Kevin Klein won by a 160-vote margin over Logan Oxenham of the Opposition New Democrats. Manitoba Liberal Rhonda Nichol placed a strong third.

This is the last byelection before the provincial vote slated for next October, and comes at a time when the Tories are trailing the NDP in opinion polls.

Jim Carr earned a reputation as a civil, contemplative politician in an increasingly polarized world. 

Friends, and even foes, described him as kind.

The Liberal member of Parliament from Winnipeg and former cabinet minister died, his family announced Monday. He was 71.

"As a dedicated elected official, business and community leader in Manitoba for over 30 years, Jim was loved and respected by so many and we know he will be profoundly missed," Carr's family said in a written statement.

Voters in part of western Winnipeg go to the polls Tuesday in a byelection that one political analyst says could serve as an indicator for the provincial election slated for next October.

The race in the Kirkfield Park constituency, which has been vacant since former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Scott Fielding resigned last spring, comes at a time when the governing Tories are low in opinion polls. The Tories have been trailing the Opposition NDP since the fall of 2020, when COVID-19 started to strain the health-care system.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson delivered her annual state of the province speech Thursday with a bit more partisan messaging than usual.

The annual speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce traditionally involves a premier going over their accomplishments of the past year and focusing on economic development before a business crowd. 

Stefanson touched on those but also said the provincial election slated for next October will be a choice between two very different visions for Manitoba on issues such as crime.

Tighter rules and more thorough record keeping could help prevent cases where human remains are lost in landfills and murder victims' families are left dealing with an added layer of grief, Manitoba's Opposition NDP said Wednesday.

"At the end of the day, we have to give the … information to police that helps them do their job and that gets justice for families," Nahanni Fontaine, NDP justice critic, said in an interview. Fontaine is the caucus spokesperson for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

Manitoba Hydro is reducing its request for rate increases for the next two years and is crediting a recent provincial government fee reduction.

Earlier this month, the Crown-owned utility said it would ask the provincial regulator, the Public Utilities Board, for rate hikes of 3.5 per cent in each of the next two years. The utility said Tuesday it is revising that request to two per cent in each year.

It's also revising its long-term projections, from annual rate hikes above the rate of inflation to rate hikes of two per cent annually for the next 19 years.