Ding dong, Bill 64 is dead.
The controversial proposal for Manitoba school and administrative reform was officially withdrawn from the provincial legislature Oct. 6, closing the door on the planned changes for at least the moment. While Manitoba Premier Kelvin Goertzen announced last month he intended to withdraw the bill last month, the act itself was only done when provincial legislators sat last week.
The bill received widespread attention for plans to remake most of Manitoba’s education structure, removing elected school boards and school divisions in place of one province-wide authority with appointed members among other changes.
"I know that a new leader has to be able to set their own agenda. As such, cabinet and caucus have authorized, with my full support, that those bills will not move forward this fall," said Goertzen in a press conference last month.
Bill 64, also called the “Education Modernization Act”, was publicly released by education minister Cliff Cullen earlier this year, but Goertzen himself was education minister in 2017 when he announced the province would conduct a review of K-12 education in Manitoba. The findings of that review are what led to the bill’s introduction, with its creation coming heavily while Goertzen was in that seat. Hundreds of Manitobans signed up as presenters to the bill, volunteering to speak up in front of legislature to voice their own concerns - more presenters signed on to speak about Bill 64 than any other bill in Manitoba’s recent history.
News of the demise of the bill was greeted warmly by members of the Flin Flon School Division (FFSD) board of trustees - if the bill was approved, both the division and board would have been wiped out.
“I don’t think any of us are disappointed,” said board chair Leslie Fernandes of Bill 64’s ending. Fernandes also praised the efforts of educators, organizers and Manitoba’s two official opposition parties for fighting back against the bill.
“There was a lot of hard work. It's public education, it's not a partisan issue, but if we didn't have the support of the NDP and the Liberal party, they wouldn't have been at this point. It took a lot of work. There's a lot of people involved and I'm glad it's defeated.”
Outgoing board chair Murray Skeavington also extended his thanks to all those who got involved against the bill.
“On behalf of the board, we want to say a big ‘Thank you’ to everyone who spoke out against Bill 64. On a personal note, I want to thank my fellow trustees and senior administrators for all the hard work they’ve done getting this bill stopped,” he said.
While both trustees welcomed the news, neither feels they’ve seen the last of education reform tries from the provincial government.
“I don’t think we’re in the clear. I think that there are big changes in education coming, but that's based on the comments,” said Fernandes.
Skeavington was succinct, saying he felt the province was “retooling.”
“It’s coming. I think it will be based more on the education review - it’s just ‘When does it come?’” he said.
Not every trustee felt the same. Trustee Tim Davis added that he felt another attempt at repackaging the bill would not be coming soon.
“I don’t think it’s coming myself, but that’s just my own personal opinion,” he said.
