Education, Childcare and Senior Care Provincial Highlights for 2023

We are more than half way through the summer and with 2 months away from the election; a lot of hard work is being done as our government continues to move forward on our commitments. In my role as Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning, I would like to circle back and re-cap what our hard work has accomplished.

This year our PC government increased funding for kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) schools by $100 million for the 2023-24 school year.

That represents an increase of 6.1% in operating funding and a 23% increase overall since 2016.This funding provides increases to operating support while addressing cost pressures and includes additional funding for special needs and independent schools. It also provides increases in existing grants.

Improving literacy and numeracy outcomes for all Manitoba students a key priority for us since the former NDP government took our province from 3rd in the country to last. The primary components in our government’s Education Action Plan strengthen our education as a whole by focusing on modernizing curriculum resources, providing an equitable funding formula, and supporting student presence and engagement. In May of this year, our provincial government announced its partnership with Enriched Academy to deliver a financial literacy pilot program to Manitoba students during the 2023-24 school year.

To address the impacts of poverty on education our PC government acted by forming the Poverty and Education Task Force, creating an all-systems approach to improve social inclusion, education, and well-being outcomes. Back in September we launched an access to menstrual products initiative that resulted in an agreement to have $3.3 million in products donated every year for 3 years. Following that, a funding increase to a total of $2.5 million went to the Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba to support school-based meal and snack programs.

In continuing with our commitment of providing higher quality education to Manitoba students within the K-12 education system, our PC government made a pledge to build 20 new schools in 10 years, and will exceed this commitment 2 years ahead of schedule.

When it comes to childcare in Manitoba, while the NDP were content on letting waitlists grow and had zero plans to expand our province’s childcare seats, we as the PC government took matters into our own hands by working with community-based organizations, existing child-care providers, school divisions and other partners to advance our commitment for 23,000 new childcare spaces by 2026. In support of that commitment the governments of Canada and Manitoba are allocating $13.5 million to help child-care centres expand infant and preschool spaces through the 2023-24 Renovation Expansion Grant. The Renovation Expansion Grant encourages facilities to invest in existing infrastructure and expand site capacity with additional infant or preschool spaces that will be sustainable for years to come. The Manitoba government estimates the funding will create up to an additional 450 spaces for children under the age of seven. Funding provided through the grant will support renovation, administrative and programming costs to create new spaces.

Here in the Lac du Bonnet constituency, our PC government has recently announced that we are making concrete investments to support the senior’s strategy by advancing the planning stages for new personal care homes. Six more personal care homes will be built with four located in the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority (IERHA) in Arborg, Lac du Bonnet, Oakbank and Stonewall. The other two facilities will be in Winnipeg. This investment brings Lac du Bonnet 95 beds! Following planning and design work, construction of the six new facilities will exceed the Manitoba government’s commitment to open 1,200 new personal care home beds by 2025.

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 Twitter @ wayneewaskomla and friend me on Facebook. (Wayne Ewasko is the LA for Lac du Bonnet and the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Learning)