Record $3.1 Billion For Education, Child Care And Libraries To Support A Growing Saskatchewan

Released on March 22, 2023

School Operating Budget Tops $2.0 Billion For The First Time

The Government of Saskatchewan is prioritizing Saskatchewan students with a record investment of $3.1 billion for Education. This is an increase of $192.8 million, or 6.7 per cent, over 2022-23 in support of Prekindergarten to Grade 12 schools, early learning and child care and libraries across the province. 

"As Saskatchewan's economy grows our government is making significant investments in our children's future through education, child care and libraries," Education Minister Dustin Duncan said. "We are ensuring students have access to high quality education no matter where they live in the province, families are supported with accessible, affordable child care, and libraries can continue to offer meaningful services, particularly to our rural communities. That's growth that works for everyone." 

Saskatchewan's 27 school divisions will receive $2.04 billion in school operating funding for the 2023-24 school year, an increase of $49.4 million or 2.5 per cent compared to the 2022-23 budget. The province is also providing $7.0 million to school divisions to retain the more than 200 Educational Assistants that have been hired since September 2021. This is part of the government's ongoing commitment to support diverse student and classroom needs. 

School infrastructure also continues to be a key priority with $147.3 million allocated to capital projects for safe and inclusive learning environments and to address enrolment growth. This includes funding for five new school capital projects including:

• a new school to replace and consolidate the elementary and high school in Carlyle;
• a new K-12 Francophone school to replace École Valois in Prince Albert;
• a new Francophone elementary school in Saskatoon;
• renovations and addition to Greenall High School in Balgonie; and
• renovations to Campbell Collegiate in Regina. 

This also includes funding for three new projects to address structural repairs and renovations including:

• consolidation of the elementary school into the high school in Kelvington;
• renovations to St. John Community School in Prince Albert; and
• renovations to Medstead Central School.

These new infrastructure projects are in addition to the 15 new school builds and seven renovations that are already underway around the province. This budget also has increased investment to $16.0 million for relocatable classrooms to address the largest enrolment growth for Saskatchewan schools in over 20 years. 

There is $23.0 million to support the start-up and operation of the new Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation (Sask DLC) for the 2023-24 school year. The Sask DLC will provide students, teachers and families with a consistent user experience and flexible learning opportunities, no matter where in Saskatchewan they live. Students will have access to a wide variety of online courses, with classes from Kindergarten to Grade 12 as well as a variety of high school electives. 

The 2023-24 Budget provides $382.4 million, an increase of $72.1 million or 23.3 per cent over last year for early learning and child care that supports young families in our province. This funding will reduce child care fees for families of children up to the age of six to $10 per day as of April 1, 2023. It will also be used to further increase the number of regulated home-based and centre-based child care spaces in the province, as part of the ongoing goal of ensuring families have access to regulated child care. 

The province is continuing to support community-based organizations (CBOs) through an increased investment of $1.2 million for organizations providing early years outreach, life skills development and literacy programming.

The 2023-24 Budget provides $11.6 million to support the provincial public library system. This includes a $254,000 increase to the grants the public libraries receive to support resource sharing services throughout the province. Additionally, supports to the public libraries will include a new investment of $200,000 to refresh the province's central collection of multilingual materials and add materials in Indigenous languages as well as literacy resources in support of our growing and diverse province.

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