The Manitoba government has introduced several new measures to help improve student safety and bring greater accountability, discipline and transparency for teachers through legislative amendments.

The new teacher certification and professional conduct framework through the Education Administration Amendment Act includes a public registry of certified Manitoba teachers who have a teaching certificate, as well as information on whether a teacher’s certificate has been suspended or cancelled.

The teacher registry is now available to the public online.

The new teacher professional conduct review process has now taken effect. The review process will be led by an independent commissioner, Bobbi Taillefer, who will receive and investigate complaints, facilitate consent resolution agreements and refer cases to a hearing panel for adjudication. The hearing panel will be made up of teachers, representatives nominated by the Manitoba School Boards Association and members of the public, which include:

• Erin Bockstael (public representative), manager of family and community programs at the Women’s Health Clinic;
• Gavin Bruce Strang (public representative), a professor in the department of history at Brandon University;
• Gord Schumacher (public representative), the executive director of the Manitoba Association of Chiefs of Police;
• Raven-Dominique Gobeil (public representative), the senior in-house attorney for the First Nations Family Advocate Office;
• Kevin Sterner (independent schools representative);
• Morgan Whiteway (Manitoba School Boards Association representative);
• Elizabeth Mitchell (Manitoba School Boards Association representative);
• Alison Bourrier (Manitoba School Boards Association representative);
• Charles Cochrane (Manitoba School Boards Association representative);
• Vinh Huynh (Manitoba Teacher Society representative);
• Jesse Thomaschewski (Manitoba Teacher Society representative); and
• Nicole Lavallee (Manitoba Teacher Society representative).

The registry is available to the public at www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/profcert/registry/index.html.

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The end of any year is a time for celebration and reflection. It is also a time to cast thoughts towards the future to wish and to plan.

With 2024 coming to a close, Dauphin’s elected officials at all three levels of government did just that.

Here are their hopes for 2025.

Dauphin-Swan River- Neepawa

For Dan Mazier, MP for Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa, the goals for the coming year focus on building on his work completed throughout his time as MP for the riding.

As a member of the opposition, Mazier keeps hearing people are ready for an election, due mainly to the policies of the current Liberal government.

Affordability, he said, is the number one issue that he keeps hearing about, along with other issues such as a housing shortage, inflation and crime.

Last year, Mazier spearheaded a private members bill C-299 for connectivity and internet service providers.

Looking ahead, Mazier said the focus will shift to cell phones.

“With my bill, they have to be a lot more transparent in what kind of service they’re selling you. That is going to, hopefully go over to cell phone service,” he said.

During his travels throughout the constituency, Mazier has noticed there are holes in cell phone service.

“There’s something going on in our cell phone service area and I know why it is. It’s because they’re going up in spectrum and they need to install more infrastructure, but they’re just not in rural Canada,” he said, adding that is something he plans on addressing to hold service providers more accountable.

Mazier hosted passport clinics throughout the riding in the summer, which proved to be popular, with more than 400 people taking part.

“So we plan on, again, providing that service that government just doesn’t provide in rural areas,” he said.

The primary focus in the new year, Mazier said, will be to hold the government to account until such time as an election is called.

“That’s our job. Bottom line, that’s our job,” he said.

“My number one focus is representing the Parkland and the riding in Ottawa on your behalf. It’s an honour every day to do it. And I have to honestly say, it’s been an honour of my lifetime to be doing this. I do do it with great enthusiasm and vigour on behalf of all the people in the constituency.”

Dauphin constituency

For Manitoba Agriculture minister and Dauphin MLA Ron Kostyshyn, his hopes for the constituency centre on the successes his NDP government has enjoyed over the past year.

“It’s great to be working with a government that’s been proactive in the last year,” he said.

“We’ve got some challenges ahead of us, but we’ve made some progress.”

Looking at the big picture, Kostyshyn is proud of the progress that has been made across the province in the areas of health care, education and making life affordable for Manitobans.

If he had his way, that progress would continue in the coming year.

“Not only in the Dauphin constituency, but all through Manitoba,” Kostyshyn said.

“If I had a big wish, and if I could make that happen, that’s probably going to be my number one opportunity.”

Focussing a little closer to home, Kostyshyn said the constituency has realized some major accomplishments over the last year.

Pointing to the success of the Manitoba Summer Games and the facility legacy left by that event. He also pointed to the redevelopment of Main Street South in Dauphin and the scheduled construction of Prairie Park Place, a new day care facility, and the growth and potential of the Northgate Trails system as examples of why 2024 was such a good year in Dauphin Valley.

“Also the financial support towards the Gilbert Plains golf course. You know, there are so many things,” he said.

“We can go back on a number of other things from the ground up”

And while some might be inclined to sit back and revel in those triumphs, now is not the time to rest on our laurels, he said.

“Specifically being my backyard, me being the MLA for Dauphin, we need to make things progress, and I think we’ve made some major inroads this year,” Kostyshyn said.

“I think we’re going to continue to grow the opportunity in the Dauphin constituency and the surrounding area.”

As a producer and minister of agriculture, Kostyshyn knows the importance of agriculture across the Dauphin constiuency. Celebrating some of the successes that have been realized, particularly in the area of  Crown land leases.

Looking forward, he hopes the conditions are right to continue along the path to prosperity for everyone through further successes in agricuture.

“We look forward to, hopefully, a profitable year for all agriculture producers and in the industries directly or indirectly associated with agriculture,” he said.

And while success is never a guarantee, Kostyshyn added he will be doing his part to make sure every opportunity is seized on behalf of Dauphin area residents and Manitobans as a whole.

“Our government, we are going to be proactive trying to make life affordable for everybody. one of (the steps) being we’re going to freeze Hydro rates as a beginning to the New Year,” he said, adding he will be doing his part to make 2025 as successful and positive as it can be.

“As the MLA for Dauphin, I will be talking to the Health minister, be talking to the Education minister, be talking to the Finance minister. We’re talking about economic growth in the province of Manitoba and throughout the Dauphin constituency.”

Read the full story in this week’s edition of the Dauphin Herald.