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Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
School divisions mobilize in response to wildfires
A Manitoba First Nation school put out a plea to families to send their children to class more regularly, citing 'a decline in student attendance,' 24 hours before wildfires engulfed the community. 'Regular attendance is essential for students to stay engaged, participate in lessons, and develop the skills needed for their future,' Sakastew School administration wrote in a memo to families on Mathias Colomb Cree Nation on Monday. 'We kindly ask for your co-operation in encouraging your child to attend school consistently.' The next day, the kindergarten-to-Grade 12 school was forced to abandon its efforts to re-engage students for the final month of the school year. Instead, leaders have been focused on rerouting their fleet of yellow buses to help transport vulnerable evacuees to the local airport, located about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Schools in Flin Flon, Lynn Lake, Pimicikimak Cree Nation and Sherridon have also been shuttered indefinitely. Other communities remain on standby. As school leaders in affected communities gas up to support evacuations where possible, colleagues in safety zones are searching for empty classrooms and gymnasiums to provide shelter. The Manitoba government has called the Winnipeg, Seven Oaks and River East Transcona divisions to find room for displaced Manitobans who arrive in Winnipeg. Details were still being hammered out midday Thursday, but superintendent Tony Kreml said he was looking for leads to help shelter evacuees and allow them to do laundry, prepare food and access showers at Seven Oaks' facilities. 'Public education is there for the greater good — that includes in times of tragedy and times of disaster,' said Alan Campbell, president of the Manitoba School Boards Association. Campbell said schools are built into community response plans because they have access to fleets equipped with wheelchair lifts and restraints to transport people safely. The Sinclair family watched school buses filled with priority-evacuees from Mathias Colomb drive past their front window to the airport on Thursday morning, and waited for their turn. 'Everybody's getting impatient – the whole reserve… Nobody's giving us information,' father Leo Sinclair said on a video call. Landline phones went down in the community as infrastructure melted in the extreme heat, but Sinclair remained connected to the internet via StarLink. He, his wife and their 15-year-old son kept refreshing social media for updates on the emergency response. The trio learned that evacuation plans were getting underway via Facebook the night before. Fire chief Glenn Dumas announced in a video that priority evacuations would include babies, elders and residents who were homebound due to medical conditions. Sinclair's immediate family – none of whom were on the initial list – continued seeking refuge from the smokey skies inside. '(Wednesday) was dark. There were lots of trees burning and it was difficult to breathe,' Sinclair said, adding the fire is believed to have started when a resident burned garbage at the dump and it spread due to windy and dry conditions. His son, whose school has been closed since Tuesday in response to the wildfire threat, was occupying himself by scrolling on the internet. A government spokesperson said the province's focus is on ensuring the safety and well-being of affected students, staff and their families. 'Consideration for delivery of education in scenarios such as these is the responsibility of the school divisions and/or schools. However, the priority remains health and safety,' the spokesperson said in a statement. The president of the school boards association echoed those comments. At the same time, Campbell noted that climate change is increasingly affecting everything in Manitoba. He suggested it would be worthwhile to look into what kind of permanent remote learning infrastructure could be created in the future to give student evacuees continuity in their schooling. 'Increasingly, as rural and remote communities are facing evacuation – either because of wildfires or because of flooding – there needs to be a way to respond to that in a proactive, measured, pre-arranged way,' he said. Maggie MacintoshEducation reporter Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie. Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative. Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
28-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Manitoba school divisions tabling property tax hikes for 2nd year in a row
Social Sharing At least half of Winnipeg's English-speaking school divisions and one in western Manitoba are tabling property tax hikes to raise revenue to cover wage settlements, growing student enrolment and increasing capital expenses, despite a boost in provincial funding. Last year, Manitoba's NDP government lifted a multi-year freeze, ordered by the former Progressive Conservative government, on the property taxes school divisions can levy. The province's education department confirmed earlier this month divisions will be allowed to raise taxes again for the 2025-26 school year. For the second consecutive year, the Seven Oaks School Division is tabling a tax hike in its 2025-26 operations budget, superintendent Tony Kreml told CBC. It's proposing a 4.5 per cent increase to its mill rate (the amount of tax payable per $1,000 of taxable assessed value). That's up from a two per cent hike approved by Seven Oaks last year, and would amount to an extra $118 a year for the average household in the division, Kreml said. While the division got a three per cent provincial funding hike, there's still a shortfall on a budget that climbed to $200 million for 2025-26 — up 7.15 per cent from last year, he said. "We face increasing costs, just like everybody does," said Kreml. "There have been wage settlements that we have to take into account," along with "high utilities, gas, technology — we're seeing increased transportation pressures also," he said. Seven Oaks is also budgeting to hire five new teachers and 15 new educational assistants, and to continue waiving fees for lunch supervision and offer a fixed fee for school supplies. The Winnipeg School Division — Manitoba's largest — is proposing a five per cent tax increase, which would amount to about $78 more a year for a property valued at around $269,000, according to a budget presentation. Last year, the division passed a 3.4 per cent increase, which amounted to an extra $51 a year for the average household in the division. Under the proposed tax hike, the school division's $528 million budget would include roughly $313 million in provincial funding and around $203 million from the municipal levy, with the balance coming from federal funding and other sources. Pembina Trails School Division tabled its budget with a two per cent increase to the property tax, amounting to a $40 increase for the average homeowner before provincial tax rebates, according to the summary of the school division's draft budget. The division's $246 million budget for 2025-26 is up 13.1 per cent over the previous year, while Pembina Trails got a 1.5 per cent funding increase from the province. The division said that while funding sources don't match enrolment growth or address fixed costs and salary settlements, it has been able to focus on decreasing class sizes and added teaching positions through "a slight increase in property taxes." Pembina Trails declined to comment on the proposed hike for the upcoming year, but a message on its website attributed to superintendent of education Shelly Amos said the proposed budget, including the tax increase, "presents an opportunity to further address the needs arising from growing enrolment." The Louis Riel and St. James-Assiniboia school divisions are expected to table their budgets Thursday night. A spokesperson for River East Transcona School Division said it will hold a public meeting on its budget on March 10. Divisions 'playing catch-up': minister Outside Winnipeg, the Brandon School Division is recommending a 6.78 per cent tax hike, or an increase of $121 annually for the average single-family home, according to a news release. The division said enrolment continues to grow at a greater rate than prior to 2020, and for the upcoming school year, it is projecting around 210 more students — roughly two per cent growth. The draft budget also includes an increase in teaching and support staff positions. Manitoba Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said school divisions are expected to keep affordability top of mind when considering tax hikes, but the province recognizes they have autonomy to make decisions to address their needs. "We know that school divisions are playing catch-up after more than seven years of unpredictable frozen funding under the previous government," Schmidt said. Progressive Conservative finance critic Lauren Stone said the tax hikes are a result of mismanagement of education funding that leaves families picking up the shortfall, with divisions passing increases of up to 17 per cent last year. "We need a long-term sustainable funding model for education," Stone said. "We're seeing these wild swings in school divisions [and] tax hikes as a result of these NDP decisions." Under the PC government, homeowners got a $350 tax credit and a 50 per cent education tax rebate. But Stone said the party had committed to eliminating education property taxes altogether. Under a change announced by the NDP in its budget last year, homeowners will now get a property tax credit of up to $1,500 — a move Stone criticized.
