Post-secondary funding hot topic at party leaders debate

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This article was published 26/09/2023 (711 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — The three major party leaders faced off Tuesday in Brandon for an early-morning debate that put a spotlight on local issues.

In an event hosted by the local chamber of commerce, and attended by some 400 people, Progressive Conservative Leader Heather Stefanson, NDP Leader Wab Kinew and Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont clashed over health care, economic development, gender identification in schools, and funding for Brandon University and Assiniboine Community College.

Earlier this year, three universities based in Winnipeg received double-digit funding increases from the provincial government led by the PCs. The University of Winnipeg received a 20.2 per cent increase, the University of Manitoba’s bump was 10.8 per cent, and St. Boniface University got 10 per cent.

Brandon University received a 3.9 per cent increase in its provincial grant, which it says puts it in a projected deficit of $3 million.

Each leader was asked what their party will do to create adequate and fair operational funding for the Brandon schools.

“When post-secondaries are adequately funded, it means that tuition is going to be more affordable and that helps your child, your grandchild be able to pursue that post-secondary degree or diploma certificate program,” Kinew said.

“It also helps to ensure that if you’re helping to pay that tuition, you are going to be able to get by.”

There has been inadequate funding “for decades,” Lamont said. “That’s the kind of neglect that we’ve seen in this province under these other two parties.

“We need to make sure that we’re competitive, because if we’re competitive, we can attract more students, not just teach our own students from Manitoba but attract people from around the world.”

When the funding challenges at BU and ACC were brought to Stefanson’s attention, the premier said her party acted right away. “Where there was a shortfall at Brandon University, we invested $5 million in capital funding for the dormitories.”

BU president David Docherty said he doesn’t want to make funding an election issue. It’s an equity issue, he added, with rural students getting less funding than those who live in Winnipeg.

“We have a projected deficit of $3 million based on a series of assumptions we’re making. We’re assuming no increase in a government grant, we’re assuming a certain per cent of tuition increase — but all that could change,” Docherty said.

One issue all three party leaders agreed upon was their support for the completion of ACC’s Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

Lamont pointed out it’s an enormous challenge for young people to get into farming, and reminded the Brandon crowd his party has proposed a Manitoba Business Development Bank, “which would be politically independent, to make sure that farmers would have access to patient capital.”

Kinew said the NDP would be “responsible stewards of the provincial economy, and that means making sure that the agriculture industry can continue to flourish and grow.”

The PCs announced a commitment at the beginning of 2023, and Stefanson said Tuesday: “We invested $10 million towards the Prairie Innovation Centre, and we will continue to make those investments in our post-secondaries.”

ACC president Mark Frison was thrilled with the unanimous support. “They can recognize that this is bigger than partisan politics, and it’s a project whose time has come.”

An issue that divided each leader was the question about so-called “parental rights.”

One moderator asked if Manitoba teachers should notify parents if children show evidence of altering their gender identification or sexual orientation.

In August, the PCs released a plan that would give parents more rights over their child’s education.

“This is about doing what is in the best interest of the kids and working with teachers, working with those in our schools who are looking after them during the school hours,” Stefanson said. “But parents need to be informed.”

Kinew said it is a divisive issue, much like COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

“We will never stand between you and your child,” he said.

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“I also will commit to you that I will stand up for trans kids every time they’re being picked on, including when they’re being picked on by politicians.”

Parents already have rights, said Lamont, and insisted the issue is creating an impression children are in danger when they are not.

“It’s all about fear-mongering, and it’s completely irresponsible because the people who are being put at risk are teachers and teacher librarians. It’s being suggested that they are somehow complicit in something sinister going on when nothing’s going on. And it’s really, really shameful,” Lamont said.

On Wednesday night, the three party leaders were scheduled to clash once more in a town hall on health care, hosted by Doctors Manitoba.

— Brandon Sun