Remarks by
The Honourable Anita Neville, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
MANITOBA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION CONVENTION
Delta Winnipeg
Wednesday, March 17, 2023
(please check against delivery)
Fellow Manitobans I am delighted to celebrate your dedication to a sacred duty.
I am pleased to join you in the heart of Treaty One land, home of the Anishinaabe and the Red River Metis people, in the capital of a province that is home to the Cree, Dakota and Dene people. We acknowledge northern Manitoba includes lands that were, and are, the ancestral lands of the Inuit.
Here and throughout Manitoba, we are working to advance understanding, healing and reconciliation and build a better home for all.
Education is central to that journey of learning, just as it is central to all of our hopes for a better, more just, more prosperous and more sustainable world.
A learning society needs advocates and leaders. It needs voices speaking up for education in every community. It needs people like you – members of the Manitoba School Boards Association.
I was fortunate for 14 years to share in the important, inspiring and sometimes exhausting work that you do.
In my time serving as a school trustee, I felt the passion for learning exuded by so many teachers and administrators. I saw the light of discovery shine from the faces of children in our division, and I heard the concerns and the dreams of the parents who entrusted their children to our schools.
I also felt the pressures: the competing financial challenges, the social conflicts, the anxiety over change and values.
Yours is a difficult role because the schools you oversee touch everybody in your community – and because so many people feel that their experience of going to school makes them an expert on schooling.
But for all the challenging aspects of your job – the difficult debates over finance and policies – it’s a supremely rewarding one as well.
When I think back to my time as a school trustee, my mind is drawn to the families we served.
I loved the fresh faces of children entering kindergarten with enthusiasm and wonder. I remember the tears of pride and joy from parents watching their children graduate. I remember the curiosity and drive so evident when students demonstrated the things they had learned.
You may not be in the classroom when that learning is happening, but everything you do as a school trustee helps to make that happen.
I wish you a productive conference filled with learning, and I wish you well in your important work to support education in our province.
Thank you, Merci, Meegwich.