Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press

Const. Moshe Linov said he was simply doing his job, but the Manitoba officer who rushed to a high school and stopped a sword attack before more students could be hurt was celebrated Thursday for his heroic actions.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew awarded Linov of the Brandon Police Service — representing himself and other first responders in the June emergency response — the Order of the Buffalo Hunt. The award recognizes people who make outstanding contributions in areas such as community service and leadership.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew was hopeful after meeting Tuesday with the prime minister and other premiers about the potential for a large Arctic trade corridor through the Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay.

But some provinces are also supporting a trade route through a port on James Bay in northern Ontario that would also serve the Arctic. The two megaprojects are among many being pitched as part of a national effort to diversify trade and protect the Canadian economy from U.S. tariffs.

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.