MLA Clarence Pettersen is hailing a $23-million upgrade for Frontier Collegiate Institute as a positive step forward for northern education.
In its Throne Speech last week, his NDP government pledged the funds to modernize the FCI campus and expand its power mechanics training facility.
“I really believe in the school and the possibilities there,” said Pettersen of the Cranberry Portage high school, “and it sure gives opportunities to First Nations and other students from the North to be able to go there.”
Pettersen said the North and all of Manitoba came out a winner in the Throne Speech, which marked the halfway point of the NDP’s four-year term.
“We’re looking at a balanced approach and we’re looking at spending additional money, of course, on roads, on flood mitigation, on schools, hospitals,” he said in a phone interview.
Pettersen is also praising another recently announced provincial initiative: the Mining Advisory Council.
The council will bring First Nations together with government and mining officials to discuss cooperative measures.
Optimistic
Asked whether the council can resolve tensions between Hudbay and Pukatawagan’s Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, Pettersen was characteristically optimistic.
“You’ve always got to be positive,” he said. “We’ve got some great people at the table and we’ve got to work through whatever was holding us up in the past. There are many possibilities in mining with jobs...and those aren’t around all the time, so we’ve got to take advantage of what’s there now. And I think the First Nation groups that are involved recognize that and want to be involved in the planning for mining.”
Pettersen, a first-term MLA, said there are other initiatives he would have liked to have seen in the Throne Speech, but he’s not disappointed.
“We’ll start with this and I’ll work for more because in my constituency, there’s always something that I’ve got to work towards,” he said.
Of course not everyone was pleased with the Throne Speech.
The opposition Progressive Conservatives continued to chide the NDP for hiking the PST before even passing a bill to do so.
