WRHA Continuing Education Fund Committee (Regional)

Information provided herein is specific to St. Boniface Nurses Worksite 5. Please contact the Worksite 5 office with any questions or concerns, or when an issue first arises.

WRHA Continuing Education Fund Committee (Regional)

This committee was originally mandated to administer the monies set aside for Continuing Education Funding to assist the Manitoba Nurses Recruitment and Retention Fund Committee in the retention of nurses in the province.

This funding is not negotiated at bargaining; is not included in the Collective Agreement, and therefore is discretionary from Manitoba Health on an annual basis.

Monies flow from Manitoba Health to the Provincial Recruitment & Retention Fund Committee. The Provincial Recruitment & Retention Fund Committee (which includes Darlene Jackson, President, MNU) annually makes decisions regarding the disposition of these funds (e.g. to the WRHA Continuing Education Fund Committee).

The WRHA Continuing Education Fund Committee (Con Ed) represents nurses throughout the WRHA and is a joint committee of management and union representatives.  Management rep Molly Blake (WHRA) and union rep Dana Orr (Riverview) co-chair the committee.

This fund can be used for parking; airfare/travel; hotel; conference refistration – within Canada only (up to $500.00 annually per nurse).

Applications must be received by the Con Ed Fund office no later than 30 days after the completion of course/workshop.

Application forms can be obtained by visiting www.wrha.mb.ca 

The funding available comes from the WHRA Continuing Education Fund to you as a nurse in the WRHA. It is your money to utilize in accordance with the guidelines. Applications are reviewed carefully to ensure employers are not offloading collective agreement Article 2407 responsibilities to the WRHA Continuing Education Fund. Employers do not have access to this fund and should not expect nurses to apply to the fund and then require those nurses to pay that money back to the “unit/program/specialty Education Trust Fund”.

Unit specific education (trust) funds are completely separate from the WRHA Continuing Education Fund. Guidelines for those funds cannot include repayment by nurses for monies received from the WRHA Continuing Education Fund. Should this occur please contact the Worksite 5 office immediately for assistance.

If your employer is telling you to attend a conference/seminar, then they should be paying you in accordance with Article 2407 of the MNU collective agreement.

Any questions regarding guidelines, applications and/or approval can be directed to the WRHA Continuing Education Fund Committee at 204.334.3433