Dear friends,

I'm writing you today about the changes happening in our province. Like many parents, I'm concerned about the cuts being made to public services that families like mine count on. In particular, as a music teacher, I'm really starting to see first-hand how Brian Pallister's agenda is having a negative impact on public education and our childrens' future. 

As you may have heard, the Pallister government’s 2017 budget does not include nearly enough funding to cover inflation and the growing needs of the students in our schools.

The Pallister government’s refusal to properly fund public schools will hurt students by making it tougher for teachers to offer the high-quality education families expect and deserve, NDP education critic Wab Kinew said today.

“The world is changing and we need to prepare students for the jobs and society of the future, which means we need to invest more in education, not less.” Kinew said. “But today, the Pallister government has said it will give public schools millions less than they will need to keep up with inflation and rising costs.”

While in government, we recognized the need for more midwife training and had found a solution we committed to fulfilling through a joint program. Over the last few months, we have called on the government to make sure midwifery programming continues. It is positive that the PC government is now alert to the need for immediate action to ensure courses continue in the fall. However, we are uncertain what this means for Northern partnerships. We are hopeful that the announcement today meets the needs of students, though we are unaware whether any of the students were notified of these new plans.