The Prince Albert Catholic School Division raised $6,821.63 as part of their annual Toonies for Tuition campaign.
Chief Financial Officer Greg McEwen announced the total during Monday’s regular board meeting. This was an improvement of $379.81 over 2024-2025.
The initiative began in 2011 and was spearheaded in Canada by former trustee Albert Provost.
“We do know that there are some provinces where Catholic education is not publicly funded (and) families are really required to pay their own tuition,” director of education Lorel Trumier said. “That’s very expensive, so anything that we can do to support that is very important to our Catholic community here.”
The goal is to raise two dollars per student in the division for the endowment fund of the Canadian Catholic School Trustees Association.
Individual school donations were not provided this year. Trumier is pleased with all of the work done at the school level.
“We are so grateful to our families and our staff and our students for doing the Toonies for Tuition campaign,” Trumier said.
The board approves the fundraiser annually. Many families in Canada need to pay tuition to attend Catholic schools. The CCSTA, through the Toonies for Tuition Endowment Fund, alleviates the burden on these families who live in provinces where Catholic education has limited or no public funding.
“You can see how successful the whole idea is that we would be able to raise a Toonie for every student in our school division because we know that if everyone did that across Canada in our Catholic schools, there would be no need for tuition to be paid in the provinces that exist,” Trumier explained.
“We’re trying to do our part. Our families and our students and staff are engaged and we’re very grateful for their engagement.”
Every Catholic school division fundraised for the initiative in 2025 to help bring the Catholic education experience to students who may not have this opportunity.
Each year a trophy is presented for the highest provincial and highest school board/division winner.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
