Partnership with Province of Manitoba will provide opportunities for Manitobans to achieve financial health and well-being.

WINNIPEG, MB – June 6, 2018 – The Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE) today announced a collaborative initiative to enhance financial education across the province. Manitoba Minister of Education and Training, Ian Wishart and CFEE President, Gary Rabbior introduced – Portals – a multi-faceted program to help improve financial capability. The announcement took place at a student Money Fair Showcase event held in the Rotunda of the Manitoba legislature today. Manitoba is the first province in Canada to partner with CFEE on the Portals program.

Under the Portals program, CFEE will work with the province on a variety of initiatives to improve the financial capabilities of Manitobans. The partnership will focus on five important target groups – youth, parents, newcomers to Manitoba, seniors and Indigenous youth and communities. There will be no cost to the province for the work undertaken by CFEE.

The partnership will entail the following activities in the first year with additional efforts to be undertaken in subsequent years:

• Development of a new, optional high school course for Manitoba youth focusing on financial capability;
• A series of teacher professional development workshops to support implementation of the new course;
• Provision of student and teacher resources to support the new course – including a new, updated, and expanded version of the resource – “Money And Youth – A Guide to Financial Literacy” along with a new accompanying website;
• Expansion of the “Building Futures in Manitoba” program integrating financial education into grades 4-10;
• Collaboration on the “Talk With Our Kids About Money” program targeting grades 4-9 including the encouragement of “Money Fairs” in Manitoba schools;
• A series of workshops for seniors in collaboration with Mayors in a number of Manitoba towns/cities;
• A series of workshops for newcomers to Manitoba in collaboration with Manitoba immigrant serving agencies; and,
• Consultation with Indigenous leaders and experts on how best to adapt the resources and programs for effective use in Indigenous schools and communities.

CFEE has been working with the province of Manitoba for a number of years to assist and support financial education and literacy. It has been a precedent setting level of collaboration between a department of education and non-governmental organization to work together in an area of learning.

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