The Manitoba government is looking at reducing or even eliminating elected school boards as part of a review of education in the province.
Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen has put together a commission to look at all aspects of schooling from kindergarten to Grade 12.
The commission is to report by February of next year and Goertzen says part of its mandate will be to look at potential consolidation of school divisions.
Goertzen says there are 290 elected school trustees across the province, and he would need to be persuaded that that is the right number.
The Nova Scotia government eliminated elected school boards last year and replaced them with a provincial advisory council.
Goertzen says that idea is not off the table.
The commission will be co-chaired by Clayton Manness, who cut school funding as education minister in the 1990s, and Janice MacKinnon, a former Saskatchewan finance minister.
“After 20 years on the sidelines Pallister has returned to his party’s old playbook: cuts,” said NDP leader Wab Kinew in a statement sent to media.
“Kelvin Goertzen, who launched a plan to close emergency rooms, has recruited a Filmon-era Education Minister to finish the job he started in the 1990s.
“Under Clayton Manness the Conservatives cut hundreds of teachers, cut school funding and made class sizes way bigger. His cuts are still being felt by families today and we cannot allow it to happen again.”
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