Winnipeg School Division seeks $14M in cost savings

The Winnipeg School Division is asking parents and staff to help identify $14 million in cost savings so that it won't, it hopes, have to raise education taxes.

The city's largest school division has launched a consultation process as it looks for the extra money for thenext academicyear's budget.

"We're going to staff, we're going to the unions, we're going to parents, we're going to senior administration," board chairman Mark Wasyliw told CBC News on Thursday.

"We're a massive organization. We're one of the largest employers in Manitoba, you see that [in] how we organize ourselves. If you see that money isn't being well spent here or there, please let us know and then we will take a closer look at that, and hopefully we'll find a good deal of savings so that we don't have tax increases."

Wasyliw said maintaining the same level of programming and staffing means the division's costs go up by two or 2.5 per cent every year, which works out to be around $14 million in a $400-million budget.

At the same time, he said property taxes do not grow with the economy, which creates a budgeting shortfall.

"The economy's been growing in Manitoba for the last 15, 16 years, it's been doing very well. But it doesn't get reflected at the Winnipeg School Division because your property taxes are basically flat," he said.

"So if the government doesn't provide more funding on a year-to-year basis, then we have to rely on property tax to make up that shortfall. Or the other solution is that we have to eliminate programs, cut services or staff, and obviously we have a lot of high needs at the Winnipeg School Division and that's not something that we want to do."

Division asking for input

Wasyliw said he's hopeful that the new Liberal federal government will commit more funding to the provinces that can be used for municipalities and education.

In the meantime, Wasyliw acknowledged that it will be a challenge to find the extra $14 million, so that's why the division is including more people in its consultation process to identify any savings that may have been otherwise overlooked.

"Eighty-five per cent of our budget is salaries, so if you wanted to make a big impact on a school board budget, you have to do something involving staff," he said.

"We don't want to do that because if you cut staff you cut services, and we need these services, and there's services that are lacking right now at the Winnipeg School Division where we probably need more staff."