Sask. budget sees funding boost for education following arbitration decision

WATCH: The province has increased its education budget as it inches closer to a three-year deal with Sask. teachers. Keenan Sorokan reports.

Following a more than year-long saga that saw teachers across Saskatchewan walk off the job – the government has increased funding for education.

The 2025-26 budget includes a 0.3 per cent increase to education as a whole, or $14 million from the previous budget for a total of just over $4.4 billion.

The Ministry of Education, which encompasses pre-kindergarten to Grade 12, will receive $3.5 billion of the total $4.4 billion reserved for education, which represents an increase of 5.5 per cent or $183.5 million from the last budget.

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The province and the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) have yet to come to an agreement with educators on a three-year contract after an arbitrator made his ruling earlier this month.

Until that’s done, local school boards may have a difficult time finalizing their budgets.

“We’re certainly encouraging the parties to get to work at the table, get that clause finalized as soon as possible so that we can roll out our budget to school divisions,” Saskatchewan School Boards Association President Shawn David said minutes after the budget was announced Wednesday.

Davidson said the increase in the education budget may be enough to stop job losses in many places across the province, but it doesn’t fulfill the association’s advocacy goals.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Davidson said. “We’ve seen a couple of consecutive education budgets now that have at least met our cost drivers. They haven’t allowed for additional investment. They haven’t allowed for additional supports that we would love to provide to youth.”

STF President Samantha Becotte said this year’s budget falls short of the per-student funding from a decade ago – a trend that the federation would like to return to.

“Kudos to the government and the fact that they’ve heard the message that education is a priority,” Becotte said. “And we’ve seen a bit of a reaction here. We need to continue to see that investment and repairing the damage that’s been done.”

Moe said of all priorities in education, the province is committed to focusing on the youngest children in school.

“The result of this investment is improving K to [Grade] 3 outcomes, and that is the golden focus of the government and the expectation that this funding is used for investing in specialized support classrooms, for example, [And] better improving those outcomes for our children.”