There are lots of good ways to insulate a house wall. They each have some benefits and some drawbacks and you pick the pros and cons that best suit your project.

It got more involved in 2016 when Manitoba adopted changes to the National Building Code, Part 9.36 which deals with the energy efficiency of houses. You can get into some complicated calculations and tradeoffs but for most new houses there's no need to go there.

The Manitoba Building Code now requires an EFFECTIVE R-value of 15.9 in house walls above ground. The person who draws the plans for your new house will list all the stuff in the walls and how much of an insulation value each one has. So, for example, a wall with vinyl siding, housewrap, OSB sheathing, studs 16” on centre with fiberglass batts between them, vapour barrier, and painted drywall looks like this on your construction drawing details:

exterior air film - R 0.68

vinyl siding - R 0.62

weather resistant barrier - R 0.0

7/16” OSB - R 0.61

2x6 studwall 16” o.c. c/w R-2...