BRANDON - The Manitoba government said Thursday it will expand the use of ankle bracelets that keep electronic tabs on people released on bail.聽
Justice Minister Matt Wiebe's news conference in Brandon was the latest in a string of announcements in the area ahead of a looming byelection in which the governing New Democrats are aiming to win a longtime Progressive Conservative seat.
The bracelets use GPS technology and let law enforcement monitor a person's location in real time. Alerts can be issued if the person enters an area prohibited under their bail conditions, and victims of domestic violence can be alerted if an alleged abuser violates bail restrictions.
The 100 bracelets currently available in Winnipeg, Brandon, Steinbach and other communities are often fully used, so the province is promising up to 100 more, at a cost of $1.2 million and expanding the program to northern areas.
Chronic offenders will be targeted with the bracelets, Wiebe said
"We talked about repeat offenders. This is something that communities have been talking a lot about -- somebody who's committing crime after crime after crime," Wiebe said.
"We need to make sure we're keeping an eye on them."
Wiebe's news release listed several other anti-crime initiatives in the Brandon area, and his announcement came one day after Premier Wab Kinew announced 10 new doctor training positions in the city.
The government has also announced money for highways, housing and dam rehabilitation in the area since the start of the month, as well as money to improve water quality in Oak Lake.
Kinew is a few weeks away from a deadline to call a byelection in the Spruce Woods constituency, which includes part of Brandon and much of the surrounding rural area including Oak Lake.聽
The seat has been vacant since Grant Jackson, a member of the Opposition Progressive Conservatives, resigned in March. The byelection must be held on or before Sept. 16 under provincial law and the campaign would need to start in mid-August.
Spruce Woods has been a longtime Tory stronghold. Jackson garnered more than 60 per cent of the vote in the 2023 provincial election -- more than double the NDP candidate's support.
A NDP byelection win would be a surprise upset, one analyst said, but Kinew is hoping to gain a foothold in rural southern Manitoba, where the Tories dominate. NDP seats are concentrated primarily in Winnipeg, the province's north and one of the urban seats fully inside Brandon.
"He's trying to appear as the premier of the whole province, not just the premier of those areas that are strong NDP supporters," Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, said Thursday.
The byelection outcome, either way, won't have much impact on the NDP government's solid majority. The New Democrats hold 34 of the 57 legislature seats. The Tories hold 20.聽
But a NDP victory would put wind in Kinew's sails and spell trouble for the Progressive Conservatives, who are still rebuilding after losing the 2023 provincial election, Adams said.
"If (the NDP) pick up a non-urban riding like Spruce Woods, it would mean that the P.C.s are deteriorating in all parts of the province, so I think we'll see a lot of work by the P.C.s to hold on to that riding."
The NDP continue to enjoy strong support in provincial opinion polls and have pulled off a couple of upsets since Kinew became leader.聽
The New Democrats won the River Heights seat in Winnipeg in 2023 over Jon Gerrard, who had held it for the Liberals since 1999. Last year, the NDP won the Tuxedo seat in Winnipeg, which had previously always voted Tory and had been held by former premiers Heather Stefanson and Gary Filmon.
-- By Steve Lambert in Winnipeg聽
This report by 好色tvwas first published July 17, 2025
