By Jeff Labine

Additional cash won’t reverse cuts: MLA

Jun 14, 2017 | 12:00 PM

Prince Albert’s New Democrat MLA doesn’t believe additional funding from the federal government will do anything to reverse the cuts made to education by the province.

The Trudeau government committed $7.5 billion to the provinces and territories over the next 11 years, which includes money specifically targeted towards early education and child care programs over the next three years.

MLA Nicole Rancourt (NDP, Prince Albert Northcote) said she was happy to see the funding announcement as she hoped it would address a number of issues including long wait times for early child care spots.

But the biggest concern for Rancourt was the SaskParty’s plan for the additional dollars.

Rancourt believed the new funding won’t reverse any of the cuts found in the most recent provincial budget.

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“We’ve seen the SaskParty make cuts to pre-school programs for deaf children and daycare centres for special needs children,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like this announcement will do anything to reverse those cuts. I worry for those children. We need to have these programs available for all families and all children.”

The province’s 28 school divisions’ funding for this fiscal year went down $22 million. 

Saskatchewan’s Education Minister Don Morgan said the nearly $40 million will go a long way to improve the quality of programing, as well as improving accessibility for families with special needs.

The federal government is also encouraging all provinces and territories to work closely with First Nations communities to improve education on reserves.

“What this will do is give us the ability to enhance those programs that are duck tailed that we are already providing,” he said. “It will also allow us to increase the number of child-care spaces. Right now, we got just over 15,000 child-care spaces approved in the province right now. We would like to add another 2,000 over the next two years.”

Morgan highlighted the importance of early education by saying a child who isn’t reading at grade level by Grade 3 will continue to struggle throughout their life.

With the additional funding, the government will be able to better identify any problems before students reach Grade 3, he said.

He said the province is working with the federal government to better understand where the money is going to go.

“The federal government says they want to look at the data we collect and will decide what to do afterwards,” he said. “The issue with what we got is as the province is what will happen if the funding just stops at the end of year three. That’s a problem we want to keep in mind as we go forward.”

Jeff.labine@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @labinereporter