WINNIPEG The Pembina Trails School Division is taking $1.5 million from its accumulated surplus fund to offset expenditures, and cutting nearly $7 million worth of spending for budget 2021/22. The school division said it has been forced into this position from a combination of factors, including a government directive to freeze property taxes, pandemic- related costs and a recent arbitration award. Deferring an unprecedented amount in infrastructure maintenance and using $930 thousand from our surplus funds to cover necessary building repairs is far from ideal and not a permanent solution,” said board chair Kathleen McMillan in a news release. The budget will see a reduction in middle years’ teacher-librarian time by 25 per cent, and high schools’ by half. The division will also reduce school instructional budgets, English Additional Language specialists, and divisional-based allocation for educational assistant staff.
WINNIPEG For 35 years, Acryl Design in Winnipeg made custom parts and fixtures for manufacturers and stores that all changed when the pandemic hit a year ago. “We were sort of out of business, I would say, because all the industries we were supplying they just sort of shut down,” said owner John Wardrope Wardrope said a large customer canceled a major contract and he had to make a gut wrenching decision. “We shut down the system and I actually had to lay everybody off,” he said. Similar to other business owners who were blindsided by the overnight impact of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, Wardrope was forced to adapt.