Drew Caldwell
Drew Caldwell is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for the constituency of Brandon East from 1999 until 2016, serving as a Cabinet Minister in the governments of Gary Doer and Greg Selinger. Caldwell is a member of the New Democratic Party.
Early life and career
Caldwell was born and raised in Brandon, Manitoba. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandon University, a Bachelor of Education degree from Queen's University in Kingston, and undertook graduate studies in history at McGill University in Montreal. He returned to Brandon permanently on the passing of his father in 1989, working as a supply teacher and managing the Brandon Career Symposium. He was active with community organizations such as the Park Community Centre and was a founding director of the Brandon Folk Music and Art Festival and the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba.Caldwell was a member of the Brandon City Council from 1992 to 1999, representing the Rosser Ward. He was a founding director of the Brandon Regional Health Authority, and - on the provincial stage - an Executive Member of the Union of Manitoba Municipalities, the Manitoba Association of Urban Municipalities and the Association of Manitoba Municipalities between 1997 and 1999. He opposed residential property tax increases while on city council, and supported owners of single-family homes in calling for parts of the city to be re-zoned from high-density residential to low-density residential. In 1998, he chaired the Brandon Poverty Forum which led to the establishment of the Brandon Social Planning Council and a $50,000 civic reserve fund for social development.
Active in the Manitoba NDP since his teens, Caldwell was President of the party when the writ was dropped for the 1999 General Election.
Member of the Legislative Assembly
When longtime Brandon East MLA Len Evans announced his retirement in 1999, Caldwell defeated Ross Martin and Susan Ferron to win the riding's NDP nomination. He was elected without difficulty in the general election that followed, as the NDP won a provincial majority government under Gary Doer.Minister of Education and Training
Caldwell was respected for his political/administrative skills, and there was little surprise when he was appointed to cabinet as Minister of Education and Training on October 5, 1999. The position gave him oversight of the province's public schools and post-secondary institutions. His position was renamed as Minister of Education, Training and Youth in 2001, and his responsibilities for post-secondary institutions were transferred to Diane McGifford, the Minister of Advanced Education and Training.Early initiatives
Soon after his appointment, Caldwell implemented an NDP campaign pledge to replace standardized Grade Three language and mathematics exams with individual diagnostic tests administered by teachers. Many teachers complained about the extra workload, and opposition critic Joy Smith argued that the test system should be restored. Caldwell responded that individual assessments were better suited to students' needs.Caldwell also removed the controversial Youth News Network from Manitoba schools. The network's parent company, Athena Education Partners, had previously offered free technology to schools in return for requiring students to watch daily YNN broadcasts, which included commercials from private corporations. According to Todd Scarth of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, YNN televisions were equipped with two-way monitoring systems to ensure that students were watching and that the volume was not adjusted. Athena's contracts also required schools to hire a half-day technician to maintain YNN equipment. Caldwell described YNN's programming as "clearly an unsatisfactory curriculum choice" for children, and oversaw the program's elimination once previously signed contracts were concluded in August 2000. The network was also banned in other provinces, and went off the air in 2000.
School funding
When he assumed office, Caldwell indicated that school board funding increases would be pegged relative to provincial economic growth. In February 2000, he announced that his government would provide schools with a 2.8% funding increase over the previous academic year. The Winnipeg One division saw its funding increase by $4.1 million, primarily due to a large number of special needs students. Caldwell announced another 2.8% in 2001, and a 2.2% increase in 2002. The latter amount was smaller than in previous years, but higher than overall provincial growth.Despite these increases, school trustees repeatedly warned the public that boards would be required to either raise taxes or cut back on services. Caldwell acknowledged that the funding increases did not address all divisional needs, and blamed low levels of funding during the previous decade of Progressive Conservative government. He also suggested that some trustees were overpaid, noting that St. Vital trustees had voted to give themselves stipends of $300 per day to attend amalgamation meetings.
Amalgamations
Shortly after assuming office, Caldwell told his department to review the Norrie Commission findings on school boards and prepare a report on amalgamations. He indicated that his intent was to save money on administration, and put more funds directly into the classrooms. Caldwell called for voluntary board mergers in 2000, saying that school divisions would need at least two thousand students to be viable and that more than half the provincial divisions were below that level.The response from school boards was tepid, and Caldwell announced in late 2001 that he would reduce the number of provincial boards from 54 to 36. Three boards in Winnipeg were forced to merge. A bill enacting these changes was passed in July 2002, and the new school division boundaries were in place for the 2002 municipal elections. The most difficult change was in Transcona-Springfield, which was split and merged with two pre-existing districts.
During the amalgamation dispute, Caldwell introduced legislation requiring merged districts to submit their budgets to the minister for approval. He argued that this was necessary to prevent large property tax increases. He also agreed to pay $50 per student to divisions that he forced into amalgamation, to compensate for the difficulties of restructuring.
Adult education
Caldwell was forced to cut per-student funding for adult education in 2000, after an unexpected surge in enrollment from the previous year put his department $10 million over budget. He later argued that some adult education programs had been inadequately managed during the previous administration, and expressed concern about the quality of education that adult students were receiving. His ministry discovered questionable recruitment practices in the Morris-Macdonald School Division, where cash bonuses had been paid to administrators who brought in thousands of adult students from elsewhere in the province. Caldwell ordered his department to investigate the matter, which he described as "clearly inappropriate".An October 2001 report from provincial auditor Jon Singleton found that the Morris-Macdonald board had offered courses of dubious quality, and had overbilled the province by as much as four million dollars by claiming students who were not actually enrolled. Caldwell dissolved the board the following month, and authorized the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to launch a criminal investigation. The RCMP later found that there was insufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges. Caldwell said of the matter, "The absolute abrogation of responsibility that took place among these officials is appalling. There may well have to be some systemic change with respect to school board financial responsibility." He introduced new legislation in May 2002.
A government-appointed overseer increased Morris-Macdonald school taxes by 28% in 2002, largely to recover funds that were lost by virtue of the previous controversy. Local residents responded by launching a legal challenge against the overseer and the government. Caldwell indicated that he was willing to cushion the tax burden by allowing new trustees a longer period of time to pay off the debt.
Jon Singleton later discovered that a second school board, the Agassiz Division, had received funding for non-existent adult students in 2001 with the Department of Education's knowledge and approval. The Department had provided an additional $450,000 to the cash-strapped board as general revenue, and flowed it through the adult education program for administrative purposes. Caldwell acknowledged that his department had made a "foolish mistake" in allowing the transfer, but insisted that it was done to protect students from the consequences of a drastic budget cut. He added that the Agassiz and Morris-Macdonald situations were completely different, and rejected calls from the opposition for his resignation. The Deputy Attorney General investigated the matter and concluded that the transaction was inappropriate, but not fraudulent.
Labour relations
Following his appointment to cabinet, Caldwell indicated that he would reverse the previous government's changes to the Public Schools Act relating to arbitration for teachers' salaries. The system in place when he assumed office stipulated that contract disputes must be settled according to the division's ability to pay. Caldwell initially considered reforming the system by putting teachers' contracts under the Labour Relations Act, so as to allow a greater range of issues to be considered. He refused to introduce the option of strikes and lockouts, which neither side had requested. The Manitoba Teachers' Society generally supported the proposed changes, while the Manitoba Association of School Trustees opposed them.Caldwell's June 2000 legislation expanded the range of arbitrable issues, but did not put teacher contracts under the Labour Relations Act. The reforms did not initially allow teachers to take class size and class composition to arbitration, although the government later exercised a clause in the bill to permit this right.