Manitoba government abandons plan to stop putting public notices in papers

The Manitoba government is backing down from a plan to stop publishing notices of everything from environmental protection changes to public health orders in newspapers.

Cathy Cox, the minister for sport, culture and heritage, says the government realizes it was moving too fast, and will not enact the relevant sections of an omnibus bill now before the legislature.

The plan, announced last year, quickly ran into opposition from newspaper publishers and others.

Kate Jackman-Atkinson, editor of the Neepawa Banner, said the change would leave people in the dark about issues such as when pesticides are being used in their area.

The bill would also have eliminated mandatory newspaper notices of proposed changes to ecological reserves, hearings of human rights complaints and more.

The notices would have only been required in the Manitoba Gazette, the government's official catalogue of legal notices which is available online.

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