Frontier Collegiate Institute is in for $23 million worth of upgrades as the Cranberry Portage high school prepares for a new era of learning.
The investment, announced in the NDP government’s Throne Speech on Tuesday, will modernize the FCI campus and expand its power mechanics training facility.
“This important regional high school serves some 300 students from two dozen different northern communities,” Lt.-Gov. Philip Lee said, reading from the speech. “At the school’s recently opened Northern Technical Centre, students learn skills by building ready-to-move homes, helping to meet housing needs in the north. Our new investments will modernize the campus and add an expanded power mechanics training facility, training more students in this high-demand trade.”
The $23 million investment is to be made “this year,” apparently meaning the school year of 2013-14.
Flin Flon received one mention in the Throne Speech, which re-announced plans to upgrade and resurface the highway between Flin Flon and Bakers Narrows starting next year.
That three-year project will likely cost north of $20 million.
Like any Throne Speech, Tuesday’s address contained numerous promises, some of them more vague than others.
See ‘Core’ on pg.
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Other promises in the speech included:
• A new five-year, $5.5-billion plan focused on core, strategic economic infrastructure to build roads and bridges, flood protection and municipal infrastructure like water and sewer.
• Better and streamlined tax credits for employers to take on more apprentices, and new tools to help match apprentices with job openings.
• A new grant program for young entrepreneurs in technology-based startups and access to better resources for young people in skilled trades wanting to start their own business.
• A new Churchill transportation authority to diversify and market the port to attract investment and develop opportunities in the north.
• Expanded co-op and workplace credit options for high school students and upgrades to more shop classes so students can gain practical experience.
• New schools for growing neighbourhoods.
• A new language arts curriculum to improve reading and communication skills for all students, new French as a first language and French immersion curricula, and a renewed focus on improving high school graduation rates in Aboriginal communities.
• New child-care centres to give parents more convenient options for care.
• More health professionals to help family doctors’ offices take on new patients, expansion of care options for cancer patients and building more clinics.
• New legislation to address high-cost credit products that the province believes risk ballooning debt for vulnerable people.
• New rules to ensure fairness for families when negotiating the sale of or renovations to their homes.
• An expansion of Manitoba Hydro energy-efficiency incentives to lower-income renters.
• Investments to strengthen provincial parks and to protect and restore the health of Lake Winnipeg.
