Right in the centre - Nothing comes for free

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Published on Friday, May 27, 2016

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

This coming weekend, both the Liberal Party of Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada are holding policy conventions. The Liberals are in Winnipeg and the Conservatives are in Vancouver. Ironically, both are debating membership fees. The Libs are possibly going to make membership free and the Conservatives have been debating raising the annual fee to somewhere near the actual cost of processing the membership.

It is too tempting to say that with a free membership, a person gets what they pay for. To not have a small membership fee seems a bit ridiculous, but it’s a method that was tried by the Manitoba Liberals. It didn’t work out all that well for them if election results are any indication.

Paying for stuff is the foundation of our economy. If everything were free, then how would the economy work? The socialists have tried to make everything become owned by the government and the history of the last 100 years is littered with dead or dying nations that have force fed or even elected socialism. Countries soon find that the socialist model doesn’t work that well, you end up paying dearly in the long run. 

Neepawa needs a new school badly. With rising enrolments in many grades, especially the K-6 grades, the schools are being pushed to the max. Getting a new school is not really a local decision. School construction is funded by the province through the Public Schools Finance Board. It takes many years to get a new school through the stages from request to approval to planning to construction. There just doesn’t seem to be the money for enough schools. The same holds true for care homes, hospitals and hard infrastructure, such as roads, water and sewer.

Neepawa is in for a long wait, as even the NDP couldn’t find school construction money in spite of blowing up the provincial debt to $33 billion. The Progressive Conservatives, with a 40 seat majority, have rightly pledged to take a close look at the ballooning debt and the provincial budget. It’s hard to see  a new school on the horizon for Neepawa any time soon.

About 25 years ago, in a church service, a person stood up at an appropriate time with a word of prophesy, or a word of Godly wisdom if you prefer. They said, “You have in your midst, all that you need to do what I have called you to do.”  That set of words has come back to me personally so many times and in so many ways. It still rings true after 25 years. It also applies to the Neepawa area. Neepawa has two excellent schools, but both are over crowded. The school division has two mostly empty schools within a few miles of Neepawa, namely Brookdale and Eden. While sending students to the smaller, under utilized schools has been discussed, the idea has seen only a half-hearted effort on behalf of the division.

What needs to happen is to assign one grade to Eden school, grade six for example. That’s the grade that has been shifted to the temporary classrooms at NACI. It would mean bussing students to Eden, but many students are bussed every day. The trip to Eden would only be for one year in a students school life. It would mean an almost instant solution to a huge over crowding problem. Seeing as the money isn’t likely coming soon or perhaps not at all, would it not make sense to utilize the facilities that we have?

No one would consider using local money or provincial money for a new hall when we have the Yellowhead Centre, the Legion and the newly named ArtsForward Centre. No one would call for a new golf course or arena as long as the current ones are under utilized and in good condition. Of course not, they aren’t full, so we wouldn’t build a new one.  Exactly! Eden and Brookdale Schools aren’t full, so why would we agonizingly wait for a school we may never get?

The provincial government has a responsibility in this process. I am sure in Winnipeg and Brandon there is some student shuffling that goes on to better utilize classroom space. It should be done at Neepawa as well. A new school would likely be $20 million. It would be a shame if that much money was added to our provincial debt when we have good facilities not being fully used. It is up to the school division board and the province to show strong leadership and get this problem solved.