Re-Elect
Greg McFarlane
School Trustee in
Seven Oaks Ward 2

Why Am I Running?

Hello constituents, friends and allies,

I am pleased to finally announce that I am seeking re-election for School board Trustee for the Seven Oaks School Division Ward 2.

Our current board of trustees was elected to a four-year term in 2018. What a four years its been. Budget cuts. Covid. Bill 64. We’ve had our challenges.

Looking back on our term, I’m grateful. We’ve navigated the challenges of Covid, kept our students and staff safe, and supported student learning and well-being in every way imaginable. For this, we are grateful to our staff for their dedication, creativity and perseverance. We are impressed by the resourcefulness and resilience our students displayed throughout. And we are especially grateful for our parents and guardians in adhering to health protocols, supporting their children’s learning and adjusting to the all too frequent changes forced upon us by Covid.

Our funding has not kept pace with costs. Every budget our board has been faced with difficult choices. We’ve managed to maintain most of our programs, reasonable class sizes and continued to limit costs to our families for things like field trips and musical instruments. We’ve even found additional resources to support settlement services and summer programs.

When the provincial government threatened local decision making in education with Bill 64, our board and our community rallied to “Keep Seven Oaks, Seven Oaks”. Thanks to everyone who put up a lawn sign, phoned their MLA or signed a petition.

They backed down! We won! Seven Oaks will stay Seven Oaks.

We did more than navigate Covid, budget cuts, and Bill 64. We moved forward on a number of important initiatives. We completed construction and opened our 26th school, École Templeton and a new MET School program in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. We expanded Cooperative Vocational programming. We initiated and passed a comprehensive anti-racism policy. We’ve obtained sites for new schools to serve

our growing community. We have started design on the first of these schools located in Aurora at North Point. It will be a K-8 dual track school and should open in Fall 2025.

We also adopted a new ward structure for this fall’s municipal election that aligns the Riverbend/ Rivergrove community with West Kildonan and Garden City. We’ve been busy and we’ve accomplished a lot. We were pleased to support the very successful community effort to keep the West Kildonan Library open.

It was a joy to participate in this years high school grads again and we are really excited about the school year to come. Thanks to our staff for their dedication and to our community for their support. It has been our privilege for me to serve as your trustee. Thank you for your support this election to help me continue to be a strong leader in the community for our children and their future.

Greg McFarlane

ReElectGreg2022@gmail.com

Why choose Greg McFarlane for School Trustee in 7 Oaks Ward 2

Greg is a loving husband and father of two, and an active member of his community. In 2014, Greg was elected in Seven Oaks School Division as school board trustee, re-elected in 2018, and in 2020 was elected board chair. With his steady hand he will continue to navigate through the school division through Covid-19 pandemic, while also initiating an anti-racism initiative and policy in SOSD. First of its kind in Manitoba.

Greg McFarlane is a Garden City Collegiate graduate and served with the Canadian Armed Forces military reserve. After leaving, he became a Red Seal certified Electrician and proud member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2085.

Greg has served as shop steward, supervisor and executive board member with IBEW Local 2085. He also received an Award of Distinction from the Province of Manitoba as Journeyperson of the Year.

Greg has done extensive work with Canadian Labour Congress and the Manitoba Federation of Labour, both elected and appointed to the Winnipeg Labour Council Executive in 2009. Greg was then elected vice-president in 2011, a position held for almost three terms.

Greg was deeply concerned about the state of our healthcare and the impact reckless cuts were having on families in north Winnipeg. He formed the Protect Healthcare in Seven Oaks Coalition. Greg has brought community and interest groups together in rallies and petitions to save and improve the declining access to quality care in Seven Oaks. He will continue to use his experience, passion and hardworking attitude to stand up for working families, including keeping the PC accountable for the cuts in education funding and creating chaos for our schools during the pandemic.

Greg was honoured to attend the Governor Generals Canadian Leadership Conference,
collaborating with others on solutions to building a better Canada…a better Manitoba!

https://www.leadershipcanada.ca

Greg is a true leader in the community and inspires others. In August 2021, Greg was nominated and highlighted as the Free Press Canstar newspaper Local Hero.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/headliner/McFarlane-champions-education-health-care-anti-racism-575085431.html