COLUMN: Report from the Legislature – Holding the NDP to account

While Manitoba government returns to Session on March 5, as the official opposition, our PC Party will continue to hold Premier Kinew and his NDP accountable for their reckless actions and costly inactions.

During last year’s budget consultations, the NDP let it slip to school divisions that education wasn’t among their top five priorities. Unfortunately, not much has changed. In February, the government announced status quo funding for schools in 2025. Sunrise School Division will see only a 1.2 percent increase, while Whiteshell School Division gets just 1.3 percent. These are both well below rising costs driven by inflation and a four percent increase in school division labour costs. In fact, the majority of school divisions will be receiving funding increases lower than the mandated salary increases. As a result, school boards across the province will once again be forced to raise taxes again this year to cover the shortfall, leaving families and businesses to shoulder the cost of the NDP’s underfunding.

Meanwhile, the NDP government is re-announcing PC plans for new schools and daycares that they themselves cancelled and deliberately delayed last year. These schools should have been funded in last year’s budget and construction should have started months ago following the joint announcement made in 2023 with myself and the federal minister. Instead, the NDP played politics with students and families, wasting time and resources. This decision has only driven up costs and forced taxpayers to foot the bill. Locally this meant the NDP delayed 104 new spaces in Pinawa, 74 more spaces in Lac du Bonnet, and 89 spaces in nearby Anola.

I continue to hear from families and teachers concerned about the NDP’s lowering of certification requirements for teachers. The NDP government are no longer requiring Manitoba teachers to learn basic subjects during their post-secondary education prior to teaching them in K-8 classrooms. This decision, made behind closed doors without public notice, makes Manitoba’s teacher qualification requirements the weakest in Canada. Lowering standards will not solve the challenges facing the education system. The NDP should be addressing real issues like class sizes, classroom supports, incentives to recruit more teachers, and more spots at our universities to educate more teachers to a high standard in all subjects that they will eventually be teaching our children.

The NDP government also quietly scrapped the Teachers Idea Fund this year. For years, this was an important resource, giving teachers extra support to improve student reading skills as well as student engagement and achievement in the classroom. Since 2021, the fund supported 197 projects in 37 school divisions, providing resources for library upgrades, phonics instruction, kindergarten book kits, reading and writing workshops, school book clubs, and so much more. These programs helped students develop lifelong skills and a love for learning. The NDP is scrambling to manage its $1.3-billion deficit, but balancing the budget shouldn’t come at the expense of our children’s education. Investing in children’s ability to read and write; to understand math and science and the history of the world, is not a luxury. It is a basic necessity for them and our province to reach their potential.

March is Lymphedema Awareness Month, designed to bring awareness and educate the world about lymphatic diseases. In 2014, I had the privilege of introducing a private member’s bill, officially declaring March 6 as Lymphedema Awareness Day in Manitoba. This day is extremely important because it allows us a yearly opportunity to draw public attention to lymphedema as well as celebrate the forward movement made by the Lymphedema Association of Manitoba, and of course to honour all Manitobans who suffer from the illness. I would like to thank all past and present board members of the Lymphedema Association of Manitoba, for their dedication towards the awareness and treatment of lymphedema.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at wayne@wayneewasko.com, or call me at 204-268-3282. Also, you can follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @wayneewaskomla and friend me on Facebook.