Canada’s Opposition NDP Calls For $50M Additional School Divisions Funding

Saskatchewan’s NDP Opposition says the provincial government needs to provide $50 million in emergency funding to school divisions before budgets are finalized at the end of the month.

Opposition education critic Matt Love held a news conference outside Saskatoon’s Aden Bowman Collegiate.

Love and the NDP want the government to help divisions avoid cuts to jobs and programs.

Some school divisions have also added fees to parents for lunchroom supervision for the upcoming year.

He said there is still a little time left in the school year for Minister Dustin Duncan to submit some quality work to get back to a passing grade while calling on Minister Duncan and Premier Scott Moe to commit to an emergency funding package for Saskatchewan schools in the amount of $50 million.

Love said the province cannot afford to wait months before acting.

A handful of Saskatchewan school divisions, including Saskatoon’s public and Catholic systems, have announced they will be cutting staff positions and charging parents for lunchroom supervision.

Love said inflation is also playing a role in added costs to school divisions.

Last Friday, upon return from a trade trip to New York and Washington, D.C., Moe said school divisions should not charge parents for lunchroom supervision and instead should draw money from reserves.

Moe said in general, reserves have been growing the past three or four years across the school divisions, adding that divisions have until June 30 to submit their budgets to Education Minister Dustin Duncan.

Meanwhile, Saskatchewan School Boards Association president Shawn Davidson said some but not all 27 school divisions saw reserves increase during the pandemic.

Davidson said some have had to use some of those funds in recent years due to the province’s “chronic underfunding of education.”

He said reserve money was often designated for specific one-time projects and can not be used to balance the books. 

In its response to the NDP’s request for additional funding, the Ministry of Education released a statement to newsmen on Friday, stating that some of the budgets indicate the staff and positions being removed are fewer than the number created with temporary pandemic funding.

The government said the funding bumps provided during the pandemic from both the province and Ottawa were intended for temporary positions and were never intended to be permanent.

It said the ministry is looking at how reductions would impact student-to-teacher ratios and other services from pre-pandemic levels.

The government said Friday that if funds are available through windfall resource revenue, “we will decide as a province what additional supports may be available.”