Education - An investment, not a cost

• We have met and exceeded our commitment to fund education at the rate of economic growth each and every year since coming to office ten years ago. This amounts to an increase of over 42%” since 1999. By contrast, the increase in education funding during the entire decade of the 1990s was only 2%.


• The provincial share of school funding has reached 75.1 per cent, up from 60.9 per cent in 1999.


• Expenditure per pupil is the highest in Canada, and our class size ratio is the third lowest.


• The province has invested over $568 million in public schools capital projects this decade, an increase of $302.5 million from the previous decade. In that time, we have built 17 new schools, 12 replacement schools and completed over 55 additions and renovations.

Property Tax Relief

• Budget 2009 increased the Education Property Tax Credit to $650, up from $600 last year and $250 in 1999, and increased the Farmland School Tax Rebate to 75 per cent, up from 70 per cent in 2008, and up from 33 per cent when we created it in 2004. With these most recent increases, Manitobans will save $18 million this year.


• We have completely eliminated one of the province’s two property taxes - the Education Support Levy, saving homeowners $100 million a year.


• Since 1999, annual property taxes in Manitoba have been reduced by over $250 million. According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba is the only province where property taxes have declined between 2000 and 2008. Since 2000 they have decreased by 0.5%, while Saskatchewan property taxes have increased 21.6%.

Responsible Oversight

• We’ve ensured more dollars are flowing into the classrooms by reducing the number of school divisions from 54 to 37, limiting administration costs, and reducing the number of school trustees.


• We’ve enshrined in legislation the right of special needs students to receive appropriate educational programming. We’ve increased special needs funding by 49% since 1999. The increase during the decade reign of the Filmon government was 4.7%.


• Our Strengthening Local Schools Act helps keep small schools open in rural communities, encourages communities to take advantage of surplus space in school facilities to provide other services such as day care, and requires school boards to do their best to ensure that no pupil has to spend more than an hour riding to or from school.

Moving Forward

• According to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (2007), Manitoba ranks fourth in science, fifth in math and fifth in reading among Canadian provinces. Canada ranks within the top four countries in the world, and Manitoba students continually rank in the top five among Canadian provinces.


• High school graduation rates have gone from 71.1% in 2002 to 79% in 2008.

Figures are current as of February 2010

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