Parents may have to find their kids alternative rides for the last two months of the school year if negotiations do not succeed between Seine River School Division (SRSD) and its 85 unionized bus drivers and monitors.

Their union was given a strike mandate at a meeting on April 11 in Ste Anne.

The 70 drivers and 15 monitors joined the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 832 July 5 of last year. The union has been working to get a new contract since then, according to UFCW president Jeff Traeger.

“The reason why we took a strike vote is because we are not particularly close,” said Traeger.

Thank you to columnist Michael Zwaagstra (April 4, 2024) for providing a positive review of my new book Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking about the Israel-Hamas War.

I wrote that little book because there is so much poor thinking about the terrible war between Israel and Gaza (led by Iran-backed Hamas), a war that is now (as I write this letter) threatening to expand directly with Iran.

Sadly, the need for my book was confirmed by a recent letter to The Carillon by Rick Loewen (“Columnist justifies infanticide,” April 11, 2024). Mr. Loewen makes three serious mistakes, which I wish to correct.

Mistake 1: Loewen says Hamas did not start the war with Israel.

Re: Graduation ceremonies are for graduates, (Think Again column, March 21.)

I am writing this letter in response to the recent column written by Michael Zwaagstra in which he declared “…parents will have little use for commencement ceremonies where all students, including those who aren’t graduating, get to walk across the stage.” As a parent of multiple students in the OCDSB (Ottawa Carleton District School Board in Ottawa I wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Zwaagstra’s uninformed opinions.

All three of my children have attended OCDSB schools for most or all of their elementary and secondary school education. To put it bluntly, nothing is lost by including children who do not fulfill graduation requirements in commencement ceremonies. Nothing is taken away from graduating students by allowing, for example, special education students who will never be able to meet diploma requirements to walk across the stage and have their achievement of completing high school acknowledged. As a parent of one such student I find it highly ignorant of someone who is an actual teacher to suggest that it is somehow watering down the significance of the ceremony by including students who are unable to fulfill graduation requirements. I would expect more compassion and understanding of nuance from an educator. Imagine being so threatened by the idea of celebrating more than one thing at a time!

Having actually read the intentions of the OCSDB school board’s proposal (as it seems Mr. Zwaagstra did not), I can confirm the intention of the school board is to remove barriers to participation in the celebration of commencement, particularly for students who are in special education and therefore do not receive a diploma (but still attend at least four years of high school), as well as students who may be newcomers to Canada (of which Ottawa has many) and will require a little longer to complete diploma requirements. The outrage expressed by the author is so misplaced as to be absurd!

The NDP’s early April announcement to scrap a combination of a 50 percent education tax rebate and a $350 credit for education taxes on residential properties was a good one.

That’s because in its place they’re bringing in a $1,500 homeowners affordability tax credit.

What this does is focus tax savings on those with lower value homes, while ending the rebates to the rich who occupy much larger homes, as well as corporations.

While exactly how it shakes out depends on the tax rate of your jurisdiction, based on an average school rate across the province, those with homes assessed at less than $437,000 will see an increased benefit, while those with a higher assessment will pay more.

Spring is in the air in Manitoba and with that comes budget time in the Manitoba legislature. We have witnessed two budgets in the past few weeks in Manitoba and in Ottawa; both the NDP provincial budget and the federal Liberal budget seem to be following Justin Trudeau’s motto that “budgets balance themselves.” A policy that will work no better for the NDP here in Manitoba than it has for Trudeau after nine years.

The debt of the federal government is approaching two trillion dollars and the interest on that debt has now reached $54 billion annually; endangering Canada’s triple A credit rating. Taking their cues from Justin Trudeau, Wab Kinew and his finance minister are on their way to adding over $5 billion to the net debt of our province by next spring. To put that in perspective, it took eight years and a major pandemic crisis to accrue the last $9 billion of net debt. At the NDP’s current spending rate, they will add close to $20 billion in debt to Manitoba in the next four years.

Budget 2024 was a disappointment for education with almost no new investment. Instead, the NDP have asked school divisions to raise your school taxes at the local level to fund our K-12 education system. They are scrapping the school tax rebate and are ending the phase out of education property taxes, which would have seen homeowners and farmers pay no more school taxes by 2028 under our PC plan. This NDP tax increase on residential homeowners will have Manitobans paying $148 million more in taxes next year to fund over $3 billion in NDP election promises.

Thankfully our PC income tax changes that indexed tax brackets every year since 2016, and significantly bumped up the Basic Personal Amount to over $15,000 last July 1, have been left in place and are still helping Manitobans. We are also benefiting from new tax brackets that started January 1, passed in last year’s PC budget, that is significantly reducing taxes on families. The tax changes we introduced will make Manitoba more competitive with neighbouring provinces, and will help attract professionals and workers to settle in Manitoba to grow our economy.

Steinbach Arts Council’s Fusion Musical Theatre has sold out its production of Beauty and the Beast.

This year, director Gabriela Gallo decided to double the amount of shows and the amount of kids performing as a way to determine if more tickets would be available. The show was announced in February and it sold out almost instantly and has had a waitlist for tickets.

“The families obviously want to come and watch their kids and even just the community support has been just fantastic,” she said.

For those who are not familiar with the story, Belle is a bright and beautiful woman who trades places with her father after he is put in a dungeon by the Beast. Over time Belle and the Beast build a bond that turns into love as Belle sees past the Beast’s exterior to find the beautiful prince within.

Spring in Manitoba brings many long-awaited things. The most notable for all Manitobans is warming of the weather and the ability to be outside more. Neighbors start to reconnect with those around them and the many Steinbach community paths see a significant increase in foot and bike traffic.

This spring has also brought with it some excitement for local sports fans as both the Steinbach Pistons and the Winnipeg Jets are participating in their respective league playoff format. On social media you can see how excited the local fan bases are to cheer on their teams. And in the summer, the Blue Bombers, the Winnipeg Goldeyes and the Winnipeg Sea Bears will add to that excitement.

While the civic pride that sports bring to a community or a province is clear. Winnipeg Jets whiteouts have been the talk not only of the province but have garnered attention right across North America. For Steinbach, there continues to be a strong excitement about the Steinbach Pistons, the best run organization in the MJHL and maybe all of junior hockey, even though they have been unable to play in their home community this year as the new Southeast Events Centre moves towards completion.

It is difficult to measure the value that community spirit and excitement bring to the province. There are many things that make it attractive to live in a community or a province. Studies have showed that the ability to both participate and watch sports is one of those factors. Perhaps that is one of the reasons governments at all levels provide support to help facilitate both amateur and professional sports. This is rarely without controversy however as not all residents either participate in or enjoy sports. Of course, there are many things that receive government support that are not directly used by all members of a community or province but that none-the-less provide a broader benefit.

Sometimes while watching and reading the news and listening to Pierre Poilievre and his gang of Conservative MPs trying to gain support for their “Axe the Tax” campaign I can’t help getting worked up a bit at the amount of false information they’re trying to spread. I’ll give you a few examples from the April 11 issue of The Carillon column by Provencher MP Ted Falk called On Parliament Hill. In the article the writer says the carbon tax is a tax on everything, gas, groceries, home heating etc. This is a misleading statement. The statement tells me that when I pay for my groceries at the checkout, I’ll have to pay a carbon tax. That’s not true. All input costs are definitely built into the selling price but there never is a direct carbon levy on the product itself. It is not like GST which is applied to single serving foods such as soft drinks or on restaurant meals or take-out meals or paper products. The carbon levy is never a percentage tax but instead a flat rate levy per volume, adjusted once a year, on carbon emitting fuel used in either, heating, production, storage, distribution, or transportation of goods only. Farm fuels used in planting and for crop maintenance, and harvesting are exempt from the levy.

The report writer also compares the carbon levy to GST. He says the carbon levy is a compounding tax, sometimes called stacked tax, not like GST which he says is only an end user tax. False and misleading again. A compound tax is a tax calculated on the untaxed item plus any tax already added. A compound tax is a tax on tax. This tax is added on top of the initial cost plus the primary taxes rather than calculated on the untaxed amount. A good example is GST on gasoline that the Progressive Conservatives brought in. GST is calculated after provincial taxes and the carbon levy have been added to the price. Check at your next fill up. The carbon levy is charged each time more fuel is purchased, but on that fuel purchase only. The Conservatives would have you believe that the tax compounds, tax on tax each time the trucker fuels up or whoever purchases fuel to heat a building. By stating that the carbon levy is a compound tax they would have you believe that the levy grows much as it does in the investment field where we have the “rule of 72”, which means that the investment amount will double each time the investment term has been reached times the rate of interest equals 72. The extra 28 percent earned is the amount earned by the compounding of the interest. The carbon levy increased about 3.3 cents per liter of gasoline or 23 percent on April 1 and will increase at the same rate every year until 2030 but never again at 23 percent per year. It’ll never compound on itself. The 3.3 cents is a small amount when comparing it to the huge price jumps at the pump of gasoline and diesel fuel throughout the year.

The Conservatives would have you believe the cost of food will greatly decrease if the farmers, who grow the food were exempt from paying the levy at all. That’s not the story I read in the farm news papers such as the Manitoba Co-operator. The farmers are not hoping to have the levy removed so they can pass the amount up the food chain to bring down food costs. They are looking forward to having their costs lowered for greater profit.

The Liberals claim eight out of 10 families get back more in direct carbon levy rebates than they initially paid in direct costs. The PBO Yves Giroux says if one looks at the fiscal impact that the levy has and adds the GST added to it and compares that to the rebate, most families are better off. However very little is free and so it is also with our effort to combat climate change. There aren’t only direct costs but indirect costs also. The PBO has calculated the effect the carbon levy has on the economy. He’s taken into consideration the effects on transportation, unemployment and the oil industry and oil stockholder earnings, which have taken a hit. The purpose of the carbon levy was to bring down carbon emissions of which the oil industry is a major contributor. A downturn in their profits only show that the levy is working. The PBO Mr. Giroux has taken the downturn in the economy caused by the carbon levy and divided it up among individuals and families and says these are our indirect costs. Although these are paper numbers only and not in real cash the Conservatives have jumped on this and now claim we don’t get back as much in rebates as our direct costs are.

In addition to being your MLA, I am pleased to announce my new role as the President of the Manitoba section for the Americas region of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie (APF). The APF is an international organization devoted to promoting the French language, strengthening solidarity among Francophone communities, and promoting democracy and human rights in the Francophone world. I am honoured to be a part of an organization that is doing outstanding work to keep the French language and Francophone communities alive and thriving. Not to mention, this position will only help strengthen my existing role as the PC Critic for Francophone Affairs.

At the beginning of the month, the NDP government released its very first budget. In Budget 2024, the NDP have noticeably chosen to cut the Arts, Culture and Sport in Community (ACSC) and Building Sustainable Communities (BSC) grant programs, both of which helped fund several community development projects and programs in Lorette, Ste. Anne, and across the Dawson Trail constituency over the years. With that said, I urge the NDP government to follow through on the $5 million that Premier Kinew promised to the community of Lorette for renovations to their arena.

Budget 2024 also states that the NDP will construct two new schools in Winnipeg. I am incredibly disappointed that the NDP government has decided to completely cancel the development of a new school and daycare facility for the community of Ste. Anne. Ste. Anne is a community with a growing population, whose need for child-care facilities and school spaces continues to rise. Currently, their education facility is overcrowded and contains multiple schools, serving students from kindergarten to grade 12. It is of utmost importance that Ste. Anne receives these facilities so they can continue to accommodate their growing population and provide their community members with the best education environment possible.

As your MLA, I will continue to advocate for the constituents of Dawson Trail and make sure that your concerns and voices are being heard.

Steinbach RCMP pulled three people off the road last weekend, handing out licence suspensions and impounding vehicles.

Police say they issued an immediate roadside prohibition to a 23-year-old male from Mitchell and a 34-year-old male from the RM of La Broquerie. Both blew a “warn” in roadside breath samples at separate traffic stops. They each were given a 72-hour licence suspension and had their vehicle impounded for three days.

A 26-year-old male from Winnipeg registered a “fail” on the device and was given an immediate roadside prohibition with a 90-day suspension and a vehicle impoundment of 30 days.

The roadside prohibition is used if the driver has never been charged or convicted for a previous impaired driving offence and currently has a valid driver’s licence.