Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press

Manitoba is the second province to sign a deal with the federal Liberals to expand school food programs across the province. 

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced the agreement during a press conference at a kindergarten-to-Grade 8 school in Winnipeg on Friday. 

The province is to receive about $17.2 million over the next three years under the National School Food Program. 

Kinew called the program one of the "most consequential public policy interventions" seen in recent Canadian history. 

A Manitoba man convicted of murder 50 years ago has been acquitted.

Clarence Woodhouse was found guilty in 1974 of fatally beating and stabbing a restaurant worker in downtown Winnipeg.

He was granted parole in 1983 and filed last year for a ministerial review of his conviction.

His lawyers argued a confession Woodhouse supposedly made was in fluent English, although he primarily spoke Saulteaux.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew continues to enjoy a honeymoon with voters one year after his NDP government was elected, but there are challenges ahead in fulfilling promises to improve health care and balance the budget.

One of the things Kinew says he has learned since the Oct. 3 vote last year is that changes can't be made quickly.

The province has seen hundreds of new health-care workers hired as part of Kinew's election promise to "fix" health care. But more workers, equipment and space are needed.

Climbing up trees, wrangling with ropes and navigating twisted odd-angled limbs may not be everyone's idea of a great day. 

But it is to Jordyn Dyck, who has turned her job as an arborist into a passion leading to international tree-climbing competitions.

Tributes poured in Friday for Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who died after collapsing outside the Winnipeg Law Courts building. 

Merrick, the first woman elected to the role, was talking to reporters about two court cases when she said she felt dizzy and fell to the ground. 

Fire and paramedic crews arrived, performed chest compressions and carried Merrick away on a stretcher to an ambulance, which sped off with its siren on.

The appointment of longtime broadcaster Charles Adler to the Senate is being criticized in some quarters, including by a member of the federal cabinet.

Adler, who spent decades hosting talk-radio shows, was named to the Senate on the weekend by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and will represent Manitoba. 

Dan Vandal, the minister of northern affairs, has issued a brief one-sentence statement that says there are many Manitobans better suited to represent the province.

Nine months after being elected, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew continues to enjoy a honeymoon with voters. 

His NDP government has enacted many promises the party made during last year's election campaign, and opposition parties are working to rebuild after losing leaders and legislature seats.

But challenges lie ahead, experts say, as the government tries to enact other pledges — such as keeping grocery prices affordable — and follow through on a fiscal plan that could require tight restraint.

The Manitoba government has given environmental approval to a planned search of a landfill for the remains of two slain First Nations women.

For some family members who have been fighting for a search for more than 18 months, the news was a welcome relief.

"They're going to be starting right away, hopefully by the end of summer or something, and they can work right through winter. So it's good," Donna Bartlett, the grandmother of Marcedes Myran, said after meeting with Premier Wab Kinew on Tuesday.

Wab Kinew was sworn-in as Manitoba premier and named his lineup of cabinet ministers Wednesday in a colourful ceremony filled with the music and customs of the many Indigenous communities in the province.

There was Métis jigging accompanied by a fiddle, Dakota singing and drumming and the lighting of an Inuit qulliq -- an oil lamp -- during the two-hour event that marked the inauguration of the first First Nations premier of a Canadian province.

Manitobans are to make history today as they cast final ballots in an election that has followed four weeks of promises, debates and controversial advertisements.

If Heather Stefanson leads the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to a third consecutive majority, she would become the first woman to be elected premier in a Manitoba general election. Stefanson took over the top spot midterm in a party leadership race after former premier Brian Pallister retired in 2021.