Manitoba premier says ‘Mine, baby, mine’ as he signals regulation pullback

Manitoba's premier is saying no to a proposed AI data centre in a community southeast of Winnipeg. Jeff Keele has more.

WINNIPEG — Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says he plans to streamline mining regulations to attract investment.

He says the province had been focusing on health care, but that it’s time to make it easier to get resource projects going.

Using the slogan “Mine, baby, mine,” he says there is nothing stopping Manitoba from following the growth plan of Saskatchewan.

He says there are ways to build faster to match global competitors like China and Russia.

The premier’s comments come less than a week after he rejected a proposal for a large data centre south of Winnipeg that the Opposition says would have meant billions of dollars in investment.

Kinew says the massive drain on power from that facility would not have come close to balancing the environmental impact or the number of jobs created.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2026.