Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 22, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba SE T T E R S T CARON AVE L O N S D A L E D R H A L L O N Q U I S T D R B O O T H D R S T U R G E O N R O A D S T U R G E O N R O A D GRACE HOSPITAL SC II P O R T A G E A V E N U E SC I STURGEON CREEK I 10 Hallonquist Dr. Winnipeg, MB Where Caring is Our Number One Concern™ PROUDLY CANADIAN www.allseniorscare.com Providing a Secure residence for seniors in a warm and comfortable environment. Come and see why living life starts here! on Beautiful Sturgeon Creek in St. James Age-In-Place Living Join Our Waitlist Today! Call Kari at 204.202.1865 WORRY FREE LIVING! Get Ready For FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2024 A4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I PROVINCIAL POLITICS Premier leaves Opposition, reporters guessing after cryptic remark; federal carbon tax to rise April 1 Kinew hints at extended gas tax holiday… or did he? A S Tory MLAs hounded the gov- ernment to oppose the federal carbon tax that’s set to increase April 1, Premier Wab Kinew either hinted at extending the provincial gas tax holiday or he misspoke in the house Thursday. Kinew, whose government temporar- ily suspended the 14-cent-per-litre fuel tax on Jan. 1, was responding to a ques- tion from Progressive Conservative fi- nance critic Obby Khan. The member for Fort Whyte was one of several cau- cus members echoing federal Conserv- ative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s calls to “axe the tax” and “spike the hike.” “How high will this premier let gas prices rise before he realizes his empty words and TikTok videos don’t fuel our economy, but taking leadership does?” Khan asked during question period. “I’ll never let the gas tax get as high as it was under (Khan’s) government,” the premier said. Kinew did not explain what he meant — lower the provincial gas tax once the six-month holiday expires July 1, extend the holiday or, perhaps, something else. Outside the chamber, the premier was asked to clarify. “Sometimes you say things in the back and forth of question period that just reflect the moment that you’re in and other times you’re offering sneak peeks at future government policies,” he told reporters. “I guess time will tell which one this falls into. I will say on the general topic of helping Manitobans at the pump, we’ll have an update in the budget on April 2.” During question period, the Oppos- ition badgered the NDP government for not joining seven other premiers in op- posing next month’s federal carbon tax increase. “Why is our premier not on that list?” asked PC Kathleen Cook. The Roblin MLA cited a poll that last week showed 76 per cent of Manitobans and 70 per cent of Canadians oppose the carbon tax. Kinew said the PCs could have lifted the provincial gas tax when they were in power but didn’t and they tried to bring in their own carbon pricing plan in 2018 that the NDP opposed. “They were all lined up to bring in their PC carbon tax,” he told the house. The PCs under former premier Brian Pallister announced a “made-in-Mani- toba” approach to carbon pricing with a “low and level price” of $25 per tonne per year from 2018 to 2022. The feder- al price was to start at $10 per tonne in 2018 and increase by $10 a year, reach- ing $50 per tonne in 2022, twice what Manitoba proposed. Pallister said at the time that the fed- eral government should give Manitoba a break because of all the money it had invested in clean energy via Manitoba Hydro. A court decision backed the federal government, which brought in the back- stop plan for provinces that didn’t meet targets, including Manitoba. It started in 2019 at $20 a tonne and is set to rise to $170 a tonne by 2030. On April 1, the price of fuel at the pump will rise as a result of an increase in the federal carbon tax. It is set to rise to 17 cents per litre of gas (a three-cent increase), 21 cents per litre of diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre of natural gas. It’s offset by carbon tax rebates that go to provinces where the federal price on pollution is in place. In 2024–2025, a family of four in Manitoba will re- ceive $1,200 ($300 each quarter), for example. “The vast majority of Canadians re- ceive more money back through the rebate than they pay into the system — because big polluters pay the most,” an Environment and Climate Change Can- ada press release said Tuesday. Kinew said earlier that Manitoba has a strong case to make for the federal government to lift its federal carbon backstop and that further efforts to get to net-zero will be unveiled in the prov- incial budget. On Thursday, he told reporters that the PCs keep bringing up the federal carbon tax in the provincial legislature “but they just kind of gloss over the fact that they brought in a provincial carbon tax, or tried to, in Manitoba.” “I think it kind of deflates the argu- ment that they’re trying to construct when not only did they, themselves, advance a carbon tax on several oc- casions, but they also charged Mani- tobans 14 cents a litre tax on gasoline,” he said. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca CAROL SANDERS MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew’s government temporarily suspended the 14-cent-per-litre fuel tax on Jan. 1. PC plan for central online high school shelved MANITOBA Education has abandoned plans to create an entirely new online high school to in- crease access to remote learning and expand e-course offerings coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The department’s planned takeover of Inform- Net — a Grade 9-12 remote learning program operated by Winnipeg’s St. James-Assinbioia School Division — appears to be collateral dam- age from the recent government transition. “We want kids in school. We know how import- ant community is. We know how much the pan- demic impacted that, especially for young people. Getting them back in-person with other people is huge for them; it helps with mental health, it helps with (socialization),” said Nello Altomare, minis- ter of education. Altomare said he is focused on establishing a universally accessible nutrition program and other priorities laid out in his October 2023 man- date letter from Premier Wab Kinew. The letter does not mention the launch of an on- line high school. Neither does a 56-page transition binder that was prepared for the new minister shortly after he was elected and tapped to oversee the kindergarten-to-Grade 12 portfolio. Internal department documents show public servants were preparing to open registration for a yet-to-be-named school for senior years students last spring. The work was underway in response to an IBM Canada report that recommended the province launch a “centrally managed” online school fea- turing scheduled and do-at-your-own pace options in English, French and French immersion. The consulting firm was contracted to research e-learning models and survey stakeholders on gaps in alternative lesson delivery in early 2022. “Development and establishment of the virtual school will be in a phased approach, starting with setting up a special operating agency and provid- ing services for grades 9-12,” states an excerpt of the final report delivered that fall. An expansion to younger grades would be explored after the high school is successfully up and running, per the authors. Their other recommendations included allocat- ing funding for every school board to hire a re- mote-learning liaison and bolstering public educa- tion to ensure families make informed decisions when registering pupils for full-time e-learning. PC education critic Grant Jackson said he was caught by surprise about the NDP’s direction. Asked about the absence of the e-school in the transition documents, Jackson indicated they were prepared by civil servants and the Tories supported the project when they were in power. The former government identified a gap in ser- vice, which disproportionately affects rural and northern students in communities with small populations and shoddy connectivity, and pro- posed a solution to it, Jackson said. “What are they going to do to address the gap or do they feel the gap isn’t there? Either way, they need to be open and transparent with Manitobans on this,” he said. Following IBM Canada’s submission, the de- partment undertook its own consultations, with a tentative plan to expand access to InformNet and relaunch it as a provincial school for 2023-24, per department records obtained by the Free Press via freedom of information requests. A total of 575 students, teachers and education leaders were surveyed on the proposed model be- tween September 2022 and February 2023. A brief prepared for then-education minister Wayne Ewasko in March 2023 indicated there was “general support” for the project across the prov- ince and it reflected lessons learned from years of pandemic disruptions to in-person education. One source said the province’s proposal wasn’t fully developed and ultimately, the division — which received increased funding in 2020 to increase InformNet’s intake in response to pan- demic disruptions — did not receive a windfall of cash to upscale the program. InformNet, originally established in 1997, re- mains the only virtual Grade 9-12 school in Mani- toba that is fully accredited and open to all stu- dents and adult learners. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca MAGGIE MACINTOSH LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER Getting a handle on ventilation THE civil service named school ventilation and expand- ing the early childhood educator workforce among the education department’s top priorities in 2023-24. The Manitoba government posted all October 2023 government transition binders online at the start of the month. The folder prepared for Education Minister Nello Altomare provides updates on the introduction of a provincial student information system, an in-progress teacher registry and efforts to improve school ventila- tion systems. A survey of air conditioning in public schools was undertaken in the fall. “The results indicated that of 682 school buildings reported, 85 per cent of schools have either full (43 per cent) or partial (42 per cent) buildings served by air conditioning systems,” a gov- ernment spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. — staff ;