WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is promising to build an overpass to improve safety at an intersection where 17 people died in a bus crash.
Premier Wab Kinew the overpass is to replace the current at-grade intersection of Highways 1 and 5, where drivers on the latter road have a stop sign as they approach and then must obey a yield sign in the median.
A bus carrying seniors crossed through the intersection in June 2023 and collided with a semi-trailer that had the right of way.
Earlier this year, the provincial Transportation Department suggested keeping the intersection at-grade and banning left turns off Highway 5 to reduce the chance of collisions.
Area residents opposed the plan and called for an overpass. The government said in the summer it would reconsider.
“This intersection is different now than any other intersection in Manitoba because of the loss of life and how sad it was to see those seniors passing away,” Kinew said.
The mayor of Carberry was pleased and surprised with the reversal.
“The town of Carberry is over the moon over this,” Ray Muirhead said.
“It was a long time coming…it’s been decades we’ve been trying to get something done with that intersection.”
The new overpass is one of many promises contained in the NDP government’s speech from the throne, which outlines the government’s agenda for the coming year.
The province is also planning to stop provincially regulated employers from requiring workers to get sick notes for absences of less than a week, a move doctors have demanded as a way to free up time to treat patients.
“We all end up paying for sick notes through longer wait times to see a doctor and as taxpayers too,” Doctors Manitoba, which represents physicians across the province, said in a news release.
To tackle the growing demand for energy, the government is planning an additional turbine — on top of two already proposed — in Brandon.
They will burn natural gas initially, but Kinew said they could be converted in the future to other fuels such as hydrogen.
Kinew said the government remains committed to balancing the budget in 2027 and promised there will be no tax increases in the spring budget.
©2025 The Canadian Press
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