In the Saskatchewan provincial budget announced on Wednesday the education sector will be receiving am overall budget of $3.5 billion – an increase of $183.5 million or 5.5 per cent from last year’s budget.
“We really feel that the government has responded to some of the things we’ve been advocating for,” said Shawn Davidson, Saskatchewan School Boards Association president.
The 27 school divisions in the province will get $2.4 billion for operating funding – an increase of $186.4 or 8.4 per cent.
The government is providing $191.3 million dollars to improve school infrastructure.
This year’s budget includes increased funding for the new collective agreement reached between teachers and the province.
Teachers will be seeing an increase of $130 million dollars for their new agreement, to address the growing enrollment and classroom struggles.
“The arbitrator’s report came out not that long ago, and there is some negotiation around the language of what that is going to look like,” said Everett Hindley, Saskatchewan education minister.
Additionally, the government announced $54.4 million for non-teacher salary increases, transportation, inflation and the implementation of 50 specialized support classrooms within the province.
“Ensuring that our children are afforded the opportunity to learn and grow in a safe and welcoming environment will provide them with the skills, knowledge and self-confidence to succeed,” said Hindley.
“This continued investment in our children’s futures addresses enrolment growth and supports the needs of students and teachers in today’s classrooms.”
The government said it is dedicated to improving literacy in the province by providing $2 million for kindergarten to grade three reading level improvements.
“Our initial assessment shows that that per student funding we see a bit of repair. But we are still about $1,800 per student behind from where we were when we were first in the country when we adjust for inflation of course. So time will tell,” said Samantha Becotte, Saskatchewan Teachers Federation president.
An additional $4.6 million for the mental health capacity building initiative will be provided in the 2025 budget.
The government is also providing $65 million in funding for preventative maintenance and renewal projects to improve schools.
The overall School Capital budget is $191.3 million which includes $28.5 million for relocating classrooms, ongoing funding for 21 new or consolidated schools, three major renovations, one new replacement school, and pre-planning for four new schools.
“We’ve seen some previous announcements in earlier budgets around new schools, new capital projects here in Regina, but in this particular budget we see significant pressure in the city of Saskatoon,” said Hindley.
“There is other pieces that we see on the capital side in this budget. There is three major renovations, a couple of those in smaller communities. So, we are pleased to see that there is some distribution of those projects around the province,” said Davidson.
These projects include:
- Replacement of South Corman Park School.
- Preplanning for a new joint-use public and Catholic elementary school in Saskatoon Northeast (Aspen Ridge).
- Preplanning for new public and Catholic elementary schools in Saskatoon West (Kensington).
- New Regina East joint-use elementary school (The Towns).
- New Regina East joint-use high school (The Towns).
- New Saskatoon East joint-use high school (Holmwood).
- New Saskatoon East joint-use elementary school (Brighton).
- New K-12 school to replace and consolidate the elementary and high schools in Lanigan.
- New K-12 school to replace and consolidate the elementary and high schools in Carlyle.
- New elementary school to replace Princess Alexandra, King George and Pleasant Hill elementary schools in Saskatoon.
- New joint-use elementary school to replace Sacred Heart, St. Mary, Empire and Westmount schools in Moose Jaw.
- New joint-use elementary school to replace St. Peter, St. Michael, Imperial and McDermid schools in Regina.
- New elementary school to replace St. Frances Cree Bilingual Elementary School in Saskatoon.
- New Francophone PreK-12 school in Prince Albert to replace École Valois.
- New Francophone elementary school in Saskatoon.
- New joint-use elementary school in Regina’s Harbour Landing neighbourhood.
- New high school to replace Minahik Waskahigan High School in Pinehouse.
- Renovations and addition to Greenall High School in Balgonie.
- Renovations to Campbell Collegiate in Regina.
- Renovations to Swift Current Comprehensive High School.
Additionally, $15.3 million of the capital funding will go to minor capital renewal projects to address structural repairs and renovations to prolong the life of schools.
These projects include:
- A new project at Canora Composite School for roof and exterior repairs.
- A new renovation project at Barr Colony School in Lloydminster.
- A new roof replacement project at St. Olivier School in Radville.
- Ongoing funding for the renovation and roof repair project at Waldheim School.
- Ongoing funding for the gym at Moswakanisihk Community School in Jans Bay.
- Ongoing funding for a renovation project at St. John Community School in Prince Albert.
- Completion of consolidation of the Kelvington elementary and high schools.
- Completion of renovation at Kyle Composite School.
- Completion of renovation at Medstead Central School.
- Completion of renovation at École St. Margaret in Moose Jaw.
The government has also announced $413.3 million for early learning and childcare agreements in the province, $11.6 million for Saskatchewan libraries and $1,1 million for funded literacy organizations.
Post secondary funding:
Post secondary institutions in the province will receive $788 million dollars.
“It will give us some certainty and some stability as we go forward. We need to be really thinking about, you know, how to how to sort of withstand some of the shocks that we’re seeing, not just on the international situation, but on the tariffs so this will really help us,” said Vince Bruni-Bossio, University of Saskatchewan’s acting provost and vice-president academic.
“Post-secondary education plays a vital role in providing talented graduates who enrich and fuel our workforce and drive our province’s growth,” Advanced Education Minister Ken Cheveldayoff said.
New direct financial support for students totaling $46 million has been included in this years budget. $34.4 million going to the student aid fun and $12.2 million for scholarships and bursaries.
“This budget delivers more educational opportunities for students and supports high-quality training programs in urban, rural and northern communities across the province,” said Cheveldayoff.
The government says it is committed to increasing the graduate retention program by 20 per cent – providing a max of $24 thousand in tax credits for living and working in the province. These tax benefits are expected to cost approximately $67 million dollars – an increase of three per cent from last years budget.
“This program helps encourage new graduates to build their lives and careers here in our province,” Cheveldayoff said.
The government has extended its multi-year funding agreement with post-secondaries in the province by one more year.
The government will be providing the schools with a permanent increase to base funding of $12 million and a one time increase in operating funding of $6 million.
The budget includes $718.2 million in operating and capital funding including $35.5 million in capital funding to expand health care training seats for areas of critical need throughout the province. This funding will help to create 900 new training seats including 60 seats for registered nurses, nurse practitioners, registered psychiatric nurses and medical radiologic technologists.
Additionally, this funding will put $600,000 towards enhancing virtual reality capacity for registered nursing programs.
$40.9 million of the capital funding investment will be used to improve learning environments and align programs with labour market needs. These investments include:
- $7.0 million to expand space at the University of Saskatchewan for new domestic occupational therapy and speech-language pathology programs.
- $3.5 million to accommodate additional seats in medical laboratory technology, medical radiologic technology and respiratory therapy programs at Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Regina campus.
- $714,000 to support ongoing seat expansion of the medical radiologic technology program at Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Saskatoon campus.
- $700,000 to expand the University of Regina’s registered nursing program.
- $678,000 for ongoing expansion of registered nursing and registered psychiatric nursing programs at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.
- $2.0 million for the new Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Joseph A. Remai Saskatoon Campus.
- $1.0 million for the Carlton Trail College Technical Facility expansion in Humboldt.
- $470,000 for planning a new North West College campus in North Battleford.
- $250,000 for planning the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine expansion project.
Additionally, $24.6 million will be provided for preventative maintenance and renewal, ensuring safe and functional campuses.
The Western College of Veterinary medicine at the University of Saskatchewan will receive $13.9 million in operating funding and $250,000 in capital funding to allow for increased enrolment in the future.
Mitacs will see an increase in funding of $430,000, bringing total funding to $1.6 million to add more research internships for students.
Mitacs is a national not-for-profit that facilitates collaboration between the private and post-secondary sectors, working to drive impactful innovation, enable valuable research and development activity, and deploy highly-skilled post-secondary talent into the economy.
The Global Institute for Energy, Minerals and Society will get $530,000 to support research and innovation in the energy and mineral sectors between the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan.