Winnipeg Free Press
Friday December 3 2004
By Mia Rabson
MANITOBA Tories accused the government yesterday of overlooking schools in Tory ridings when it comes to decisions about where new buildings should go up, an accusation the government hotly denied.
Tory education critic Heather Stefanson said during question period yesterday the decision to build a new school for West Kildonan Collegiate in an NDP riding "was clearly political."
Stefanson said there wasn't even a request from Seven Oaks School Division for a new building but they got one, while divisions in Tory ridings which did ask for new schools, have been denied. Pembina Trails, Louis Riel and River East are among the ones that asked, Stefanson said.
"Clearly there are some areas of the city that need to have schools built. They happen to be areas where our members are," Stefanson said. "There was not even a request made in an area where they represent and there is a new school going up."
Stefanson said the current Seven Oaks School Division superintendent chaired the NDP election campaign in 1999, and noted the chair of the Public Schools Finance Board, which makes decisions on capital funding for schools, used to be a trustee in Seven Oaks. Stefanson said both men contributed to the NDP in the past, and clearly there are connections between the two men and the NDP party.
"How much do parents in (Louis Riel, Pembina Trails and River East) have to contribute to the NDP before they get a school?" Stefanson asked in the house. Education Minister Peter Bjornson called the allegations "ludicrous."
"We have been building schools throughout Manitoba," he said.
Bjornson said the very first school he cut the ribbon on since becoming education minister was in Mitchell, Man., in the Tory-held riding of Steinbach. He said the $288 million spent on capital improvements in education since 1999 has "virtually impacted just about every constituency."
Five of the eight new schools announced since 2001 were in Tory-held ridings at the time of the announcement.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca