The Member of the Legislature for Steinbach anticipates 2020 will be a hectic year for him as the government makes changes to the K-12 education system. Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen says the findings and recommendations of a review commission, which received input from over 15,000 Manitobans, will come out early in the year.

Kelvin Goertzen"The government will receive the K-12 commission in February. I understand that it's on track. We will release it publicly and fully at the end of March, as we committed to when it was launched. I expect there are going to be some interesting and bold initiatives in there."

Goertzen anticipates there will be mixed reaction to the recommendations.

"Anytime you bring forward bold initiatives, you have some people who say that's great, some people who say, let's see out that works out and some people who say we don't like it from the outset. My hope is that when people get the opportunity to look at the review, whatever it says, that they'll take a step back, give it a little time to percolate and think about some of the positive ramifications that could come from it."

Goertzen says he learned some lessons about implementing change when he was Health Minister, when he put through significant reforms in the Winnipeg hospital system, lessons that he will use in implementing change in education.

"Key among them is communication, how you get the message out about not only what your are doing, by why you are doing it. And in roles like health and education, very strongly emotional roles, people tend to focus simply on what is happening and do not have as much time to think about why it is happening and what was happening before that wasn't working. We have to do a better job of explaining not just what the changes are, but why they are happening."

He expects to begin implementing some of the changes soon after the report is released.

Meanwhile, Goertzen says the other big event he foresees this coming year will Manitoba's 150th birthday.

"It's something to be proud of and something to celebrate. As Canadians, generally, we don't always celebrate what we have in the country, particularly in Manitoba, where we're friendly but we're modest. It's good to be modest, it's good to be humble, but I think we should also pound our chests once in awhile and tell people what a great province we have. Manitoba 150 will be an opportunity to do that, for all of us."