Staff, parents irked by late decision to close city schools Officials criticized for jeopardizing safety as blizzard descended on Winnipeg By: Nicole Buffie Posted: 6:37 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025 Last Modified: 10:22 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025 Updates

A blizzard forced the cancellation of classes in Winnipeg, but not in time to prevent some school staff from driving to work and ending up stranded because it was too dangerous to head home.

A school custodian said several support workers in one school division had reported for work Thursday morning only to realize classes had been cancelled. Some had driven in from outside the city and had to stay put because highways had closed.

The custodian was forced to remain with the support workers who waited out the storm.

“They couldn’t get home, and I couldn’t go home because I had to arm the building and I was the only one around,” said the employee, who declined to be named. “It took some people two hours to drive in and they were left to just sit around.”

All public Winnipeg school divisions were closed Thursday due to an Alberta clipper that dumped seven to 10 centimetres on the city.

It was the first time all metro schools had to close owing to a storm since 2022. Before that, a citywide snow day had not been declared since 1997.

The call to cancel school buses was made at 6 a.m., but with Winnipeg Transit still in operation and the Perimeter Highway still open, the decision to close schools was held off, according to an emailed statement attributed to Shelley Amos, chairwoman of the Winnipeg metro superintendents.

Shortly after 7:15 a.m., police issued a message advising people to stay off the roads and shelter in place.

“This additional information resulted in our collective decision to close all schools in Winnipeg,” the statement said.

The custodian was expected to be at work shovelling sidewalks long before discussions or advisories were sent out.

“The people in power probably should have stepped outside first thing this morning and looked themselves when deciding whether to cancel school,” the janitor said. “I knew as soon as I went outside, it was bad. Why didn’t anyone do the same thing?”

The late call to close schools sparked a discussion about the timing of closing advisories.

“They knew that the weather was going to be (bad).”

Amos said the decision to close city schools is co-ordinated between the six metropolitan divisions. Meetings begin at 5 a.m. and decisions depend on Winnipeg Transit operations, highway conditions and Winnipeg police advisories.

The message was nearly too late for some parents, including Allison Chemerika, who was just about to send her kids out the door when she received word the school would be closed.

“What really ticked me off is thinking how many people have a phone or internet for these types of notifications,” she said. “For my kid’s school to cancel at 8:15 a.m., just minutes before they were going to leave, is pretty bad.”

Last December, Chemerika received an automated phone call from Elmwood High School that said a threat had been made against the school and it would be closed the following day. An anonymous social media message claimed someone planned to enter the school with weapons at the noon hour.

The mom of two said school divisions should use the same system for inclement weather.

“They knew that the weather was going to be (bad) in the morning. Why didn’t they just close them the day before as a precaution anyway?” she said.

“The people in power probably should have stepped outside first thing this morning and looked.”

Amos said in her statement that division officials pay attention to the forecast but typically don’t close schools pre-emptively.

“We make a real-time decision with the information available at the time,” she said.

In 2022, metro divisions pre-emptively closed all buildings for two days owing to an impending storm that was forecast to dump 30 to 50 centimetres of snow. The storm didn’t materialize.

Amos said schools are anticipated to reopen Friday.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said the “shelter in place” advisory was sent to minimize weather-related incidents and keep people safe from hazards resulting from the storm.

As a result, serious weather-related incidents and injuries were minimized, Chancy wrote in an email.

Unions for teachers and support workers called the issue a health and safety hazard and said announcing school closures earlier would have prevented anxiety and unnecessary travel during hazardous conditions.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society said school divisions must have broader conversations about how they and local associations can work together to put quick and clear protocols in place when severe weather is forecast.

“Our members are right to expect that when advance warnings exist, decisions will be timely and err on the side of caution to protect everyone who travels to and from Manitoba schools,” said MTS president Lillian Klausen.

Gina McKay, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Manitoba, wants divisions to consider the risk facing employees when they go to work in a storm.

If meetings began at 5 a.m., the call to close schools should have come well before employees began their trek to work.

“We know that employers are required to take precautionary health and safety seriously, right? Their bottom line is they need to protect workers,” McKay said. “This can’t remain the status quo.”

CUPE represents about 5,000 support workers in Manitoba school divisions.

Letters sent to parents in some school divisions early Thursday afternoon acknowledged the short notice given about school closures but defended the move, saying the divisions “made the best decision with the information on hand at the time.”

“We acknowledge the challenge and the frustration felt and thank those who have taken the time to provide respectful feedback.”

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“We acknowledge the challenge and the frustration felt and thank those who have taken the time to provide respectful feedback,” said a letter from the Pembina Trails School Division to parents.

A similar letter was sent to parents in the River East Transcona School Division.

The custodian is asking for a citywide policy to be adopted so reaction to inclement weather is consistent.

“You knew this was happening. If you’re meeting as a group at six o’clock, there’s a reason why you’re meeting at six o’clock,” they said. “Which one of those superintendents actually went out and picked up a shovel like I did?”

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer

Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole.

Every piece of reporting Nicole 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.