Jackson rebuts NDP claims on school builds

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This article was published 02/11/2024 (515 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the construction of nine new schools announced by Manitoba’s previous government was put on hold earlier this year, current Education Minister Nello Altomare said his predecessors failed to budget for the projects, but Spruce Woods Progressive Conservative MLA Grant Jackson disagrees with that assessment.

On Friday, the Sun sat down with Jackson to interview him about his first year in office. The Souris native worked as a legislative staffer for the Tories before winning the race to succeed the retiring Cliff Cullen in last year’s provincial election.

Jackson is unique among Brandon MLAs in that his constituency includes both a slice of the city and many of the rural municipalities surrounding it.

After starting out as the Manitoba Hydro critic, Jackson was assigned the education portfolio after previous incumbent Wayne Ewasko assumed the interim leadership of the party. He also serves as the party’s deputy house leader.

The previous PC government had promised it would build schools through a public-private partnership (P3) model, including a K-8 school in the Brandon School Division and a K-12 school in the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine.

This year’s budget, the NDP’s first since regaining power, only included two of those schools, and neither will be in Brandon.

At the time, the government said the Tories hadn’t put aside cash for the projects and they were under review. A planned expansion for Maryland Park School was temporarily put on the back burner before the NDP put it back on the to-do list.

The Canadian Press reported earlier this month that Acting Education Minister Tracy Schmidt announced the official cancellation of those P3 projects.

Jackson said on Friday that the Tories had a request for quotes out for those schools in place last year that closed either on Oct. 3 or Oct. 4 — on or just after the provincial election.

“In the midst of that, we lost the election,” Jackson said.

“And so they (the NDP) chose rather than taking those bids and going to the Treasury Board and having a conversation about funding those projects and writing them into their first budget … they chose to send a note to all of the bidders to that project and say, ‘Thank you very much for your time, but this is closed and this project is no longer proceeding.’”

In essence, the government was in the process of determining those planned schools’ cost.

The P3 process, Jackson argued, is faster than the traditional public method, which would help in the race to meet many school divisions’ rapidly growing student populations.

Another departure the NDP made was to put a hold on the Tories’ phasing out of the education property tax model.

Starting under former Premier Brian Pallister, the PCs started to introduce rebates for the education portion of property owners’ taxes in anticipation of creating a new funding model for the school system.

However, by the time the party lost power, it had yet to come up with one.

The NDP’s first budget maintained the rebates at their existing levels but allowed school divisions to raise taxes for the first time in years. Next year, the rebates will be eliminated and homeowners will get a $1,500 flat credit.

The government has also promised to implement its new education funding model by the next tax season.

On Friday, Jackson said he wasn’t keen on the flat rebate now that school divisions can increase taxes again.

He said he’d like the new funding model to account for the different realities divisions faces based on their geographic locations, not just their student population.

“Rural divisions, in particular, where student populations are stagnant, costs are escalating dramatically for rural division particularly in busing,” Jackson said. “The prices to buy new school buses have increased dramatically over the last five to 10 years. Just because you have less kids on those buses doesn’t mean the buses can be any less safe.”

As for why his party didn’t introduce a new funding model while it was in government, Jackson said he doesn’t know and “would love to know the reasoning behind that.” He said Ewasko has indicated to him that the previous government had been hard at work on the project.

In Jackson’s constituency, a big concern has been policing. Earlier this year, the provincial government disbanded the Rivers Police Service after its last two officers resigned.

After that, the Blue Hills RCMP detachment — which serves communities around Brandon like Carberry, Souris and Cornwallis — had Riverdale Municipality added to its catchment area.

Jackson said Justice Minister Matt Wiebe told him during question period earlier this week that he had spoken with the leaders of municipalities within Blue Hills.

Though Jackson said he doesn’t know how the meeting went, he hopes funding is being offered to help the Mounties fulfil the needs of the 2,000 extra people they now serve.

When it comes to the safety concerns of his rural constituents compared to his urban ones, Jackson said people in Brandon aren’t as concerned about a lack of police presence.

He said he hears “all the time that residents are frustrated” about property crime. Even if they have cameras capturing evidence of crimes being committed, he said his rural constituents believe those responsible aren’t being held accountable.

“That’s a problem, whether it’s real or a perception,” Jackson said. “It’s still a problem that our justice system needs to address because perception matters and Manitobans deserve to feel like their concerns about crime are being taken seriously.”

On health care, Jackson said he’s glad to see the work progressing on expansions to the Brandon Regional Health Centre and Western Manitoba Cancer Centre, projects his party started while in government.

“We need those projects for Westman to create more of a hub, to put less pressure on the hospitals in Winnipeg,” Jackson said. “We need modern facilities to recruit newly trained medical professionals.”

Jackson said he’s an advocate for an NDP project, the announced medical school for Brandon University in partnership with the University of Manitoba.

“It’s got to happen,” he said. “We need to train doctors in western Manitoba.”

Jackson also said he supports Glenboro’s fundraising efforts to build a new medical clinic and will be attending a fundraising gala for it on Nov. 23.

While he said there’s lots of work needed on the province’s highway network, the three biggest areas he believes need improvement are Highway 2 from Souris to Deleau, Highway 5 from Carberry through Spruce Woods Provincial Park and Highway 34 from Holland to Austin.

According to Jackson, Highway 5 is on the books for 2025 or 2026, Highway 2 isn’t planned until 2028 or 2029 and Highway 34 has yet to be given any timeline.

In Brandon, Jackson said he hears a lot of concern from residents over the intersection of 18th Street North and Braecrest Drive, which is part of Highway 10.

“I understand that there’s some hold up there or negotiation still ongoing between the City of Brandon’s engineering department and the provincial engineering department,” Jackson said.

“I don’t know exactly where that’s at, but I keep bugging both city and provincial officials every time I see them about the fact that that’s a serious safety concern for my North Hill constituents and they want to see some progress to address that intersection in the short-term, not the medium or long term.

On Monday, Premier Wab Kinew inducted 134 first responders and dispatchers from Carberry, Neepawa, Brandon and other communities who responded to the June 15, 2023, fatal collision at the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 5 near Carberry into the Order of the Buffalo Hunt.

“The premier, I think, quite rightly recognized the first responders who responded that day,” Jackson said. “I can’t imagine the horror that they witnessed. We need to take action to ensure that they never have to witness something like that at that intersection again.”

As part of the team that negotiated the five-year child-care agreement between Manitoba and the federal government that started in 2021 while a legislative staffer, Jackson said it’s very important to him to ensure the proper rollout of the rest of the deal.

Another accomplishment Jackson said he’s proud of is getting a private member’s bill passed in his first legislative sitting, which he has heard is a rarity. Bill 202 made April 26 Community Foundations Day in Manitoba.

Jackson said he’s a big supporter of the community foundations model and wanted to thank foundations for their hard work. He also thanked community foundations, including the Brandon and Area Community Foundation, for supporting his bill.

Earlier this week, the Tories announced the final list of candidates for their next party leader: Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan and hotelier Wally Daudrich.

Last week, Balcaen told the Sun he’s endorsing Khan in the race. Jackson, however, isn’t ready to publicly endorse anyone yet.

He said he’s looking forward to the party holding leadership contest events in Westman so locals can get to know the candidates. He encouraged anyone wishing to participate in the process to buy a $20 party membership before Feb. 28, which is the deadline in order to vote in the race.

“It’s been a humbling year,” Jackson said of his first year in office. “I’m really appreciative of this opportunity and glad to be working on behalf of this region of the province, which I care very much about.”

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