In its 2025 budget, released this afternoon, the Government of Manitoba answered the question that was on many local people’s minds: “Will we finally be getting our new school?” Thankfully the answer is yes. It, along with ten other schools was included in the budget over the next three years, but it is not among the first in line, all of which are K-8 facilities, and there are still a lot of questions surrounding the build. 

The Province has indicated that they are streamlining the budgets of the schools by using the same template for each one. However, before the change of government in late 2023, Neepawa was deep into the decision-making process around designing a vocational high school with needs that would not match other secondary institutions. The status of that design, or of the high school having a vocational program, is unclear at this point.

We will be highlighting other locally-relevant aspects of the just-released budget in a future show, and will hopefully be able to shine some light on some of these looming questions.

As well, we visited Neepawa’s home-grown Canada Reads evening to talk with organizer Blair Chapman. The Margaret Laurence Home, a museum and local cultural facility that operates out of Laurence’s childhood home in Neepawa, has been holding an event in conjunction with Canada Reads for the past ten years. It began as a way to tie Margaret Laurence’s legacy as a renowned Canadian author to contemporary Canadian literature and continues as a place for local readers to engage with the books and their themes.

“[Canada Reads] introduces us to authors we might not have heard of, engages us with issues of current interest and sometimes controversy, and open conversation and sharing of ideas is something that is still really important,” said Chapman, “so we like to support that.”