REGISTRATION
Registration for the Canada Life School Program will open on October 20, 2023 at 8 AM.Festival du Voyageur recognizes the role the fur trade played in the colonization of these lands and the impact it has had on Indigenous peoples. We acknowledge that this festival takes place on Treaty 1 territory, the lands of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Ininew (Cree) and Dakota peoples and the Homeland of the Red River Métis.
The Canada Life School Program gives students a chance to engage with the cultures, stories, and languages of our ancestors. This year, we are offering a hybrid program comprised of in-school craft programs for your classroom, 2 days of virtual livestreams at Fort Gibraltar, and of course, interactive demonstrations, plays, concerts, outdoor sports, dance workshops, and many free activities for all students to enjoy in-person at Parc du Voyageur.
We continue to work with Indigenous partners and educators to improve upon our existing programming. As such, we recognize that requiring Indigenous partners and artists to speak French and/or English can be a painful reminder of Canada’s colonial past. In the spirit of reconciliation, we will not require Indigenous performers to speak French or English, but we will provide translation into those languages where necessary.
HÉ HO!
Registering for the school program is easy! That said, please keep the following information in mind when planning your Festival experience.
- All programming on Friday, February 16 and Wednesday, February 21 will be presented in French. Please note that programming offered on Tuesday, February 20, Thursday, February 22 and Friday, February 23 are presented in English.
- Schools must book a minimum of one (1) paid activity.
- All school groups attending a full-day will be scheduled into a lunch time slot. See the Lunchtime section for more information.
- Transportation costs are the sole responsibility of the visiting school group.
- All programs operate regardless of extreme weather condition. As such, no refunds will be given due to school or divisional cancellation policies.
- Choose your programs!
Take a look at our program guide in order to plan your day at the Festival du Voyageur.
- Fill out the reservation form
The online registration form can be found here. All fields must be filled out to be considered admissible. Mark your desired activities in order of preference in the requested activities section of our registration form, please note that this does not guarantee your spot in those activities. The form is double-sided, the in-school craft programs and Fort Gibraltar Live! options are on the second page.
Reservations will be accepted as of October 17, 2023 at 8 a.m and until January 22, 2024.
- State any special needs and comments on the reservation form!
We want all of your students to have an awesome day at Festival du Voyageur. Please be aware that the Parc du Voyageur is a stimulating environment, and there will be loud sounds and music. Also, due to winter conditions, not all programs are fully accessible. Please list any student accessibility requirements and be as specific as possible so we can help you to the best of our ability.
- Submit your registration form via email.
All reservation forms must be submitted to [email protected].
- We will acknowledge the receipt of your reservation form within three business days and you will be contacted in turn.
If you do not receive this acknowledgment within the specified time, please contact us immediately at [email protected] or at 204-258-2562.
- When Festival du Voyageur receives your form:
Based on your requested activities, the School Program Coordinator will schedule your students’ day. If your choices are not available, the School Program Coordinator will suggest alternatives by email and/or telephone.
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Confirmation
Festival du Voyageur will send a confirmation of your registration as well as a copy of your invoice. On your registration document you will find a confirmation number. Please keep note of it so that we can access your file more easily when we communicate with you over the phone or by email.
- You will receive a confirmation.
- Please request any changes by emailing or phoning the coordinator.
- Once all changes have been made, sign and send the confirmation to the coordinator
- Once confirmed, we will send you an invoice.
Payment / Invoicing
- You will receive an electronic copy of the invoice.
- Invoices are to be paid within 30 days of issue. The deadline for all payments is February 9, 2024. A service charge 2% will be charged to overdue accounts.
- If we do not receive your payment within the timeframe mentioned above, your reservation may be at risk of being cancelled. Please make sure to verify the due date on your invoice.
- Please indicate your confirmation number when making your payment. If your school division is paying for your outing, please request that your school name and your confirmation number appear on the cheque so that we may identify your payment as complete. We accept: Visa, Master Card, debit, direct deposit, cash, or cheque.
For secondary schools following a semester system: Teachers may reserve up to 50 spaces for students without paying a reservation fee. Upon the start of the second semester, you will be required to complete the reservation, including the final number of students and chaperones. Payment will be due in full.
Please make your cheque payable to:
Festival du Voyageur Inc.,
233, Provencher Blvd.
Winnipeg (Manitoba), R2H 0G4
Rules and regulations – modifications/ cancellations/ refunds
- Since there are several fixed costs associated to the School Program, the Festival du Voyageur will not issue refunds due to illness, absenteeism or due to bad and/or severe weather.
- All School Program components are subject to changes and cancellations without notice.
- Festival du Voyageur will not issue refunds for bus breakdown or bus cancellations by the schools or school divisions.
- The cancellation deadline is January 22, 2024. No refunds will be made after this date.
- The deadline to bring modifications to your reservation is January 22, 2024. No modifications will be made after this date.
- A REFUND MAY BE ISSUED IF:
- An activity is cancelled and not replaced without notice by the Canada Life School Program (refund is for the activity in question only)
- There is a change to your reservation before January 22, 2024.
- You decide to cancel your reservation before January 22, 2024.
Cost for students
There is a base registration fee of $6.50 per student. The cost of individual workshops varies between $3.00 and $4.00. GST is applicable to all registration fees. For example, the cost of one student’s visit might look like this:
$6.50 (base fee) + $3.00 (A Bourgeois’s Business) + $3.50 (Whitter Park Sleigh rides) = $13.00 plus GST
The base registration fee allows us to provide supervised lunch areas and safe outdoor spaces, among, others. In addition, every student receives a code that can be sent to teachers prior to your outing.
Cost for chaperones and extra teachers
A maximum of one chaperone for every 10 students is allowed access with the group at no extra charge.
Please remember to indicate how many chaperones will be attending on the reservation form, and notify us if this number changes, so we can adjust the cost and number of entry bracelets you will receive. Any additional chaperones will be charged $12.
Festival du Voyageur will not be held responsible for any theft or loss of items that may occur while visiting Parc du Voyageur or any of the Canada Life School Program sites.
Parc du Voyageur is closed to the public during the Canada Life School Program hours to protect the safety of attending students.
October 17 at 8 a.m. |
FDV will start processing registration forms. Registrations received earlier than 8 am will not be processed. |
December 22 to January 2 |
Our office will be closed for the holiday season. |
Visit heho.ca for Boutique hours |
Shop online or in person at La Boutique du Voyageur, located at 233 Provencher Blvd. |
January 22, 2024 |
Last day to register for the make-and-take crafts programs. |
January 22, 2024 |
Last date to bring any modification to your itinerary for the in-person and Fort Gibraltar Live! programs. Deadline to cancel your registration without incurring any penalty. Last chance to register for the Canada life School Program |
Early February |
FINAL DETAILS: These will be emailed to you. VISIT KIT: The kit will be sent to you by mail. |
February 16, 20-23 |
2023 CANADA LIFE SCHOOL PROGRAM is in progress! |
February 16, 2023 |
The Online Survey for The Canada Life School Program 2023 will be online. |
March 15, 2024 |
Deadline to submit your completed Online Survey and enter to win one of our prizes. Winners will be notified at the end of March 2023. |
March 31 |
Last day to contact us to retrieve any lost items. Following this date all lost and found items will be donated to the Flavie-Laurent Centre, 450 Provencher Blvd : 204.233.4936 |
- Above all, we care for the safety of your students.
- Help us care for the Festival site by not littering. Please use the garbage and recycling bins provided.
- The snow sculptures and walls are beautiful works of art, and our sculptors worked very hard to create them. Do not climb or draw on them.
- Please do not disturb scheduled presentations or activities in progress.
- Do listen to any instructions given by the Festival staff and/or volunteers. If they tell you to stop doing something, there’s a good reason!
- Be careful on the slides, and wear the helmets provided.
- Take care around the horses. They are strong animals, and they don’t like surprises!
- We know it’s really tempting, but no snowballs!
- It is the responsibility of teachers or chaperones, and not the staff and/or volunteers of Festival du Voyageur, to maintain discipline and supervise their group(s.)
- We encourage teachers and chaperones to model active listening, to silence cell phones, and to take necessary phone calls or conversations with other adults outside and away from the students while programs are in progress. This will ensure an excellent experience for your students.
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This kit will be sent to you by mail in early February 2024 and will include:
- Your schedule of activities, including your lunch time and location
- A bilingual map of Parc du Voyageur
- Entry bracelets for your accompanying adults
- Must be receive payment before we can send your visit kit. Otherwise, it is your responsibility to pick it up BEFORE your outing
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Celebrate Festival du Voyageur all year long with a brand new ceinture fléchée (sash), a souvenir t-shirt or other Festival merchandise! We offer schools and their students the opportunity to order official Festival du Voyageur goods.
How to order
- Distribute individual order forms to the students.
- Collect the students' order forms and payments.
- Send the master order form and payment to Festival du Voyageur.
- Merchandise can either be picked up at our office (233 Provencher Blvd.) or be sent to the school to be distributed to the students. Please select your preferred option on the master order form.
One order form per school please! The order form will be available on our website as of mid-December and sent with your package.
- To avoid confusion, please ensure that all teachers and accompanying adults have a copy of the itinerary prepared by the Festival du Voyageur School Program Coordinator.
- Lost students – Please share the following with chaperones and all students. A lost child policy is in effect in Parc du Voyageur. Lost students or teachers/chaperones looking for students should report to the Info Centre located in Parc du Voyageur. Festival du Voyageur staff will follow a strict procedure to ensure that all parties are reunited.
- We know chaperones attending the Canada Life School Program work hard to make sure school outings go smoothly, and they deserve to have a great time too! Please print out as many checklists as you need to ensure their success.
- Click here to download the checklist
Hours: Activities are scheduled from 9:30 to 14:45. Departure from the park must be no later than 15:00.
Parc du Voyageur is designated as a non-smoking zone during the Canada Life School Program. As such, smoking is not permitted anywhere in Parc du Voyageur. Thank you!
Chaperones must arrive with their group or they will be refused entry to the park unless prior arrangements have been made with the School Program Coordinator.
Festival du Voyageur, along with its partners and volunteers, will not be held responsible for accidents that may occur on the Parc du Voyageur grounds or any of the Canada Life School Program sites.
Spending the entire day at the Canada Life School Program? We will reserve the space that best accommodates your activity schedule.
- Lunch seating will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. Lunch spots are calculated at 10 spots per table, and we ask that you comply with this ratio so all participants at the school program can have a place to eat.
- Groups participating for a full-day will be assigned a lunch space.
- Place lunches in labeled boxes and take them to your assigned lunch space. Most lunch spaces will have signage indicating where to place your boxes.
- Menus of vendors on site will be posted on the website, heho.ca, in February.
- Lunch space availability is subject to change.
- Schools visiting for a half-day will not be assigned a place for lunch.
- In order to accommodate everyone, lunch spaces are provided for a length of 30 minutes.
If you and your students are looking for free activities to do or need directions to your activities, please visit the Info Centre, located near the heated bathrooms. Our helpful staff are more than happy to assist you!
Have you lost or found something? Items may be dropped off or claimed at the Info Centre with our staff during the Canada Life School Program hours. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that your lost item(s) will be found. During the festivities themselves, you may claim lost items at Parc du Voyageur or call 204.233.ALLÔ (2556) to locate items. Lost and found items are kept for a month following the Festival du Voyageur at our offices located at 233 Provencher Blvd.
When your school-bus arrives onsite, a volunteer from our parking team will board your bus and give you a number. Please keep this number with you and make sure that your students and chaperones also know the number!
If this number is even, your group will exit at the main entrance (#1 on your school program map). If this number in odd, your group will exit at the service entrance (#12 on your school program map). When you have your entire group and are ready to leave the site, please proceed to your designated exit. Give your number to the volunteer at the exit and they will call another volunteer in the parking lot to locate your bus and bring it to your exit. This may take a few minutes. Please communicate with your bus driver(s) and make sure they are with their bus(es) when you want to leave!
If you are from a rural school or if you are arriving at the park in a vehicle other than a school bus, please be sure to indicate this on your reservation form in the comments section. This will help us facilitate your departure from Parc du Voyageur.
We appreciate your comments! Your feedback helps us innovate and improve the Canada Life school program.
To win one of our great prize packages, answer our survey which will be available online as of February 16. Please complete the online survey before March 15, 2024.
PRIZE PACKAGES – URBAN CATEGORY
1st prize: $200 credit towards your 2025 School Program invoice.
2nd prize: $100 credit towards your 2025 School Program invoice.
PRIZE PACKAGES – RURAL CATEGORY
1st prize: $200 credit towards your 2025 School Program invoice.
2nd prize: $100 credit towards your 2025 School Program invoice.
Draw winners will be contacted by email in March 2024
Colin Mackie
Heritage and Education Programs Director
[email protected]
Ph. : (204) 258-2566
Monique Olivier
Heritage and Education Programs Manager
[email protected]
Ph. : (204) 258-2567
Maryse Gagné
School Program Coordinator
[email protected]
Ph. : (204) 258-2562

Monique Olivier
Heritage & Education Programs Manager
[email protected]
Tel. : (204) 258-2567

Colin Mackie
Heritage & Education Programs Director
[email protected]
Tel. : (204) 258-2566

Maryse Gagné
School Program Coordinator
[email protected]
Tel. : (204) 258-2562
MESSAGE FROM CANADA LIFE
The Canada Life School Program offers students an educational voyage to an important era in Western Canada’s history — the fur trade.
We invite you and your students to engage with the cultures, stories and languages of our ancestors. Designed to educate students in Grades 1 to 12, the program will explore the dramatic day-to-day lives of the Voyageurs through song, dance, art, sport, and historical interpretation.
At Canada Life, we’re helping communities reach their potential, every day. Through working together with Festival du Voyageur, we’re engaging new generations of voyageurs, while shining a light on our storied past. Like our country, our company was built by those with adventurous hearts and pioneering spirits, which is why we’ve grown and prospered with Manitoba since 1891.
We’re proud to continue our support for such a longstanding, Winnipeg winter tradition. Bon Festival! Hé ho!