Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are bidding to host the Canadian Football League Grey Cup championship in either 2024 or 2025, and the Manitoba government is offering up to $5.5 million to help the bid.

Winnipeg is a natural choice, given the club's back-to-back wins in the last two championships, Premier Heather Stefanson said.

She expects the economic benefits to outweigh the cost, and said city hall is expected to offer up to $1.5 million.

First Nations leaders are suing the federal and Manitoba governments over what they say are far-reaching, damaging effects of the child welfare system.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and other plaintiffs are seeking $1 billion in compensation and an end to apprehensions they say are often based on poverty and racial bias. 

They hope to have the lawsuit certified as a class action for children and their relatives, as well as communities, affected by apprehensions in the province since 1992.

Winnipeg police announced charges against five more people Wednesday, a day after dismantling a protest camp on the north lawn of the Manitoba legislature near the main entrance to the building.

They also explained their decision to take down the camp after leaving it since it was set up in June.

"What we saw was an erosion of co-operation and an increase in both rhetoric and aggression, and a complete unwillingness to be reasonable around restricting expansion of the camp," said Dave Dalal, superintendent of uniform operations for the Winnipeg Police Service.

Winnipeg police stopped an attempt by protesters Monday to enlarge an encampment that has been on the front lawn of the legislature for months, while the provincial government confirmed that some people attached to the camp have been recently arrested.

The encampment was set up in spring and has been adorned with signs and flags highlighting a variety of issues, from the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools to COVID-19 restrictions to conflict in the Middle East.

A rebounding economy and higher federal transfer payments helped cut Manitoba's deficit by more than half, government fiscal numbers released Thursday show.

The deficit for the fiscal year that ended in March came in at $704 million, down from $1.6 billion originally predicted in the budget and from $2.1 billion the previous year. The numbers were contained in Public Accounts, the annual final tally of budget numbers reviewed by the auditor general.

Manitoba's electricity rates are shaping up to be a key issue in the fall legislature sitting that started Wednesday. 

The rates have traditionally been the second-lowest in the country, behind Quebec's, but there are warnings that Crown-owned Manitoba Hydro must boost its finances and address its growing debt load.

The Opposition New Democrats called on the Progressive Conservative government to withdraw a bill that would set financial targets for the utility while capping any rate hikes at five per cent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.

The Manitoba government plans to make millions of menstrual products available for free at schools, women's shelters and resource centres across the province.

The Progressive Conservative government has reached a deal with Shoppers Drug Mart, which will see the pharmacy chain supply 3.3 million tampons and pads each year for three years.

Shoppers struck a similar deal with the Ontario government last year, although the Manitoba supply is higher per capita. Financial details of the deal with Manitoba were not immediately available.

The Manitoba government is still planning to make the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation an official statutory holiday but says it's too late for the change to take effect this year.

"It would be very disrespectful of everybody to introduce something at this point," Labour Minister Reg Helwer said Wednesday.

A judge has handed fines to five Manitobans who repeatedly violated COVID-19 pandemic public health orders over a period of months — even after they were given tickets for each offence.

It was the second courtroom loss in a year for people trying to overturn restrictions the Manitoba government imposed.

"A message must be sent that public health orders … are meant to be respected," provincial court Judge Victoria Cornick said during her sentencing Thursday.

A Manitoba politician who resigned from cabinet over controversial remarks by former premier Brian Pallister says she is planning to retire.

Eileen Clarke, 68, said Sunday she will serve out her term but will not seek re-election when the next vote — currently scheduled for Oct. 3 of next year — is held.

"It's a very full life. I find most weeks, I work seven days a week, and there comes a time when one has to think about the future," Clarke said.

"I just feel that I have to look at life from a different side other than full-scale work."