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WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s NDP government has laid out its plans for the coming year in its second throne speech since taking office.

It says it will freeze Manitoba Hydro electricity rates for one year starting in 2025, fulfilling one of its election campaign promises.

Premier Wab Kinew also says the government would look at introducing legislation to address anticompetitive contracts that make groceries more expensive.

A new statute is to be commissioned for the front lawn of the legislature building to replace one of Queen Victoria that was toppled by protesters on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Day in 2021. 

Kinew says the new statue will be of a mother bison and her calf to serve as a reminder of the sacred bonds of family that were harmed in the residential school era. 

The government is also to work with cultural institutions, museums, and history and heritage experts to come up with the best way to display the Queen Victoria statue, which was beheaded and covered in paint. 

The throne speech repeated the government’s efforts to address health-care system challenges, family budgets and public safety, which the province says remain a priority. 

It says it would release a new plan to combat long wait times in emergency rooms and add 800 new hip and knee surgeries at the Selkirk hospital. 

The legislature is scheduled to sit until Dec. 5 and break until March.

©2024 The Canadian Press