Drew Caldwell

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Drew Caldwell Biography

Drew Caldwell (born April 10, 1960) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba since 1999, is a cabinet minister in the government of Greg Selinger, and served in the cabinet of Gary Doer. Caldwell is a member of the New Democratic Party.

Caldwell was born in Brandon, Manitoba. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandon University (1982) and a Bachelor of Education degree from Queen’s University in Kingston (1983), and has taken graduate studies in History at McGill University. He returned to Brandon as an adult, worked as a substitute teacher, and was active with community organizations such as the Brandon Folk Music and Art Festival, the Brandon Poverty Forum and the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba.

Caldwell was a member of the Brandon City Council from 1992 to 1999, representing the Rosser Ward (Ward Two). He was a founding director of the Brandon Regional Health Authority, and 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 tax increases while on 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 led a movement to establish a $50,000 reserve fund for social development.

All Manitoba divisions were redistributed before the 1999 election.

When campaigning for election in 1999, Gary Doer pledged that his party would move to phase out the Education Support Levy on property taxes by its third year in office, unless such a move would jeopardize health or education services. An April 2001 report by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities subsequently proposed a significant education tax shift from property taxes to general revenue. Caldwell announced later in the year that his government would begin phasing out the levy for homeowners, and would attempt to remove it entirely in five years.

Caldwell was widely respected for his 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.

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 returned without difficulty in the general election that followed, as the NDP won a provincial majority government under Gary Doer.

Caldwell was appointed to a super-committee of cabinet, called the Community Economic Development Committee, in late March 2000. In August of the same year, he was appointed to the Manitoba Round Table for Sustainable Development by Conservation Minister Oscar Lathlin.

In November 2000, the Doer government introduced $50 million over five years to repair the University of Manitoba’s crumbling infrastructure.

The Doer government’s first budget, in May 2000, included $60 million of new money for Manitoba’s community college system, and a 3.8% increase for university funding. Although senior educators acknowledged that Caldwell’s spending increases were a step in the right direction, many described the funds as insufficient. The University of Manitoba announced that it would need to introduce significant cuts in the wake of the budget, although Caldwell argued that university management practices were responsible for the institution’s shortfalls. Brandon University officials described the budget as their “most optimistic” in years.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

Diane McGifford took Caldwell’s seat on the Community Economic Development Committee in March 2001, as the position required the presence of a minister overseeing universities and community colleges.

In 2001, Caldwell announced that Manitoba would open high schools in Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok in an effort to attract overseas students to Manitoba’s post-secondary education system.

Caldwell ceded cabinet responsibility for universities to Diane McGifford in 2001. The Winnipeg Free Press newspaper suggested that he had been “carrying too much responsibility” and “accomplishing too little” in his original ministerial duties, and noted that he was more familiar with the public education file.

In 2001, Caldwell introduced a program to allow greater freedom for high-school students and teachers in designing their curriculum. Under his proposals, students would be allowed to earn optional credits through non-traditional means, such as taking part in science projects or performing community service. Some argued that these changes would devalue the quality of Manitoba education, but Caldwell insisted that the new credit courses would be thoroughly vetted and would incorporate traditional subjects. The proposal was revised in 2002; credits for volunteer work were allowed, but extracurricular activity credits were dropped after opposition from educators.

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.

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.

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.

Caldwell supported Jack Layton for the federal New Democratic Party leadership in 2002-03. He supported Tom Mulcair in the 2012 leadership race to succeed Mr. Layton.

Caldwell announced a $3.3 million housing announcement for Winnipeg in October 2002, in conjunction with Mayor Glen Murray and Member of Parliament Anita Neville. Soon after, he helped introduce a solar panel heating project to reduce downtown Winnipeg’s fuel consumption.

In November 2002, Caldwell announced that his government would establish a residential treatment centre to provide care and counselling to sexually-exploited children. He also announced a review of Winnipeg Child and Family Services’s temporary shelters after a series of complaints, and worked to ensure that play therapy services for children would be retained.

Following a cabinet shuffle on September 25, 2002, Caldwell was named Minister of Family Services and Housing with responsibility for Persons with Disabilities. The Family Services Ministry was being restructured at the time of Caldwell’s appointment, and he was given responsibility for overseeing the transformation.

Following a cabinet shuffle on September 25, 2002, Caldwell was named Minister of Family Services and Housing with responsibility for Persons with Disabilities. The Family Services Ministry was being restructured at the time of Caldwell’s appointment, and he was given responsibility for overseeing the transformation.

Caldwell also introduced a revised funding formula for Manitoba schools in early 2002, simplifying some aspects of a model that was often criticized for its byzantine complexity. Some argued that the changes did not go far enough.

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.

Caldwell was re-elected in the 2003 provincial election, winning an easy victory over his Progressive Conservative opponent. He was originally retained as Family Services and Housing Minister, but left cabinet on November 4, 2003. He had been suffering from respiratory difficulties for some time, and Doer indicated he requested to be removed due to health concerns. Others have argued Doer was dissatisfied with Caldwell’s performance and have suggested that the latter’s health concerns, while legitimate, provided cover for a dismissal.

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