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Amalgamation not in the card for Flin Flon School Division: province

Manitoba Education Minister Ian Wishart and his department say they are not considering amalgamating the Flin Flon School Division (FFSD) with another division.
Education Minister Ian Wishart.
Education Minister Ian Wishart.

Manitoba Education Minister Ian Wishart and his department say they are not considering amalgamating the Flin Flon School Division (FFSD) with another division.

Discussion at a recent Flin Flon school board meeting indicated some trustees are concerned about the possibility of a forced merger involving FFSD.

In addition, Wishart told the Winnipeg Free Press in February he would not rule out division amalgamations and that he viewed FFSD as an overlooked candidate from the last round of mergers.

But when asked by
The Reminder last week whether Wishart is actively looking at amalgamating FFSD, his spokesman was succinct: “No, we are not.”

FFSD escaped the then-NDP government’s forced amalgamations of 2002, which cut in half the number of school divisions in northern Manitoba.

Snow Lake, Lynn Lake and Leaf Rapids were gobbled up by the Frontier School Division. Churchill also joined Frontier, but voluntarily.

There had been talk of Flin Flon, The Pas-based Kelsey and Swan River-based Swan Valley school divisions amalgamating, Flin Flon school trustee Murray Skeavington previously told the Free Press.

At the time, those three divisions met the NDP’s amalgamation criteria of fewer than 2,000 students and low tax bases, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, the Flin Flon school board’s ability to freely set its own property tax rate may be jeopardy.

In a March interview with the Winnipeg Sun, Wishart said he is open to discussing new limits on boards’ taxation powers.

“I think it’s inevitable that it will change. [As for] when and how, timing is always the big issue,” he told the newspaper.

Manitoba is the only province in which school boards still maintain a near-universal authority to directly tax property owners, according to the Sun.

Saskatchewan stripped school boards of taxation powers in 2009. The Saskatchewan government now determines a provincial rate for education each year.

In another possible change of direction, Wishart told the Free Press he is willing to listen to requests to close small schools.

The NDP placed a moratorium on most school closures in 2008. The Flin Flon school board of the day protested the policy, calling it “yet another example of the provincial government overriding locally elected school boards and their ability to make autonomous decisions.”

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