Manitoba.

• Author: Signorelli, Andrea
• Position: Legislative Reports

The House sat until November 9, 2017 to complete the business of the 2nd Session of the 41st Legislature; this included five designated bills mentioned in our last submission, the consideration of the Estimates of the Departmental Expenditure in the Committee of Supply and the remaining steps for the passage of the Budget. In order to do so, the House sat until 4:14 am on the last sitting day, when all the remaining Bills received Royal Assent.

Our rules set defined deadlines for the completion of all stages of these bills by either the end of the Spring Sittings or the Fall Sittings. Government bills meeting certain deadlines are guaranteed to receive royal assent by the end of the Spring Sitting in the beginning of June. Those bills are called Specified Bills. However, the Official Opposition may designate up to five Government bills for the purpose of further consideration, with these bills to be held over until the resumption of the Fall Sittings and be completed by the last sitting day of the session.

The House also passed other Bills which did not fall under anyone of the categories mentioned above, including:

Bill 34--The Medical Assistance in Dying (Protection for Health Professionals and Others) Act, which allows individuals, without disciplinary or employment repercussions, to refuse to participate in medical assistance in dying because of personal convictions and states that professional regulatory body cannot require its members to participate in medical assistance in dying.

Third Session of the 41st Legislature

The 3rd Session of the 41st Legislature began on November 21st, 2017 with the Speech from the Throne delivered by Lieutenant Governor Janice C. Filmon. The speech focussed in particular on the province's finances, service improvement and the economy. The address highlighted a range of commitments and proposals in these areas, including:

* planning for a public service transformation strategy, implementing mechanisms to ensure government spends smarter, and reducing overlap and duplication in government services;

* reforming the province's children in care program, including legislation to remove barriers to guardianship to move children from government care to homes and improve outcomes for those children;

* governance reforms in healthcare designed to reduce senior management and to ensure maximum resources dedicated to front-line care;

* improving self and family-managed home care and a new Priority Home program that...