On February 9, the province rolled out their education subsidization plans for the 2026–27 school year. This year, new money is available to help school divisions provide teacher salary harmonization.
In total, nearly $2 billion in provincial funding will be doled out for education. Just over $11 million of that funding is allocated specifically for teacher salary adjustments.
“School divisions now have to bargain with Manitoba teachers at one table,” says Tracy Schmidt, Minister of Education and Early Childhood. “What that has done is that all teachers in Manitoba, going forward, will make the same salary. That was not the case in the past. So what this means is that some school divisions have to raise their salary to come up to the [standardized] rate level.”
She says that many school divisions were facing this financial pressure prior to the announcement.
But salary harmonization is only one of the province’s selling points. They’re also adding $80 million in new funding, an increase of 3.5 percent over last year. This is intended to help divisions manage enrolment changes and ensure student support.
From this increase, $51 million is designated for public school operating costs. Another $17 million is set aside for independent schools.
Local school divisions will benefit based on their enrolment and salary harmonization needs.
Division scolaire franco-manitobaine (DSFM) will see the highest level of new funding, with a nine percent increase. Next is Seine River, at 5.7 percent. The Hanover School Division will receive an additional three percent in funding.
Just over $15 million is expected to support the capital cost of building new schools. Four new schools are proposed at this point, including two in Winnipeg, one in West St. Paul, and one in Brandon.
According to Adrien Sala, Minister of Finance, this year’s budget is another step in the right direction when it comes to supporting Manitoba students.
“When we came into government, schools across Manitoba were struggling after seven years of cuts,” Sala said. “We took action right away. We’ve hired over 1,600 new staff since 2024, including over 800 new teachers. We’re building 11 new schools… We introduced a universal school nutrition program and enshrined it into law so that every child in Manitoba will have access to the food that they need.”
Since the NDP government came to power two and a half years ago, they also turned back the clock on the previous PC government’s mill rate freeze, which prevented divisions from raising local taxes to make up for cost increases.
During a press conference, a reporter from the Morden/Winkler area questioned Schmidt on the government’s intention to continue using the property tax model.
“A number of people in the past have raised the idea that the burden for education funding should gradually be removed from property taxes,” the reporter said. “This is something that keeps coming up in our area every year. I’m wondering if the minister has any thoughts on that.”
Schmidt responded that the NDP approach is different than that of the PC government.
“We know that kids and schools deserve to be invested in,” she said. “We’re growing our funding to school divisions in a stable, predictable way that allows them to go to their ratepayer in an equally stable and predictable way, keeping affordability top of mind for Manitobans.”