The Saskatchewan NDP and education workers represented by CUPE held a press conference facing Carlton Comprehensive High School on Tuesday to call on the Saskatchewan Party government to step in and cover educational assistant positions after federal funding cuts.
Shadow Minister for Education Matt Love said that earlier in 2025, school divisions across the province had to make layoffs for educational assistants due to changes in Jordan’s Principle funding at the federal level.
“The Saskatchewan NDP and education workers are here today to call on the Sask Party government to restore critical support for students by backfilling educational assistant positions being cut right here in Prince Albert,” Love said.
“Educational assistants play a vital role in our classrooms, supporting some of the most vulnerable children in our province. I can’t say this more clearly: educational systems are vital to the education our children receive at school, and children here in Prince Albert and across the province deserve equal access to an education system that meets their needs.”
Love said the Saskatchewan Part government could have reversed the cuts months ago and could still reverse the cuts before school returns next week.
“It’s not too late to bring back these hard-working educational assistants to start our kids off on the right foot this school year,” Love said. “Our kids only get one chance at preparing for a bright future.”
Jordan’s Principle is a child-first legal rule in Canada that ensures First Nations students receive the services they need without bureaucratic delays. It was named after Jordan River Anderson, a Cree child from Norway House Cree Nation.
In the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division budget passed in June, total Federal grants decreased from $3,107,647 in 2024-2025 to nothing in the current year. This was due to the division not applying for Jordan’s Principle funding because of the uncertainty around it.
Last year this allowed them to hire or keep 24 Education Assistants and 36.5 Mentors in the division to work with Indigenous students. The division has moved from a half time mental support worker to the ability to hire a full-time mental support worker.
At the most recent Prince Albert Catholic School board of education meeting on Aug. 18, director of education Lorel Trumier and CFO Greg McEwen updated the board on a new agreement that was to be signed with Indigenous Services Canada.
The draft funding agreement includes funding for Jordan’s Principle and provincial school tuition. Upon signing the agreement the Jordan’s Principle funding will be disbursed. This will fund Jordan’s Principle from April to June 2025, between the end of the old agreement and the signing of the new one.
Administration has also taken steps to request ISC approval for use of unexpected funds, approximately $273,000 for Jordan’s Principle in the 2025-2026 school year.
Jordan’s Principle funding for 2024-2025 was used to hire 38 Educational Assistants.
Shandel McLeod, Vice-Chair of the Education Workers Steering Committee with CUPE Saskatchewan is based in Saskatoon, which saw 80 educational assistants cut in February in the Saskatoon Public School Division.
“The Jordan’s Principle funding cuts affect education assistant jobs across Saskatchewan in February of this year,” McLeod said. “We saw first hand how the loss of 80 education assistants had devastated schools and support to indigenous students and their families.”
Love said his understanding was that school divisions in Saskatchewan and the prairies had their funding either denied or delayed which led to the cuts in Saskatoon.
He said that EAs hired under Jordan’s Principle funding is not being absorbed by Saskatchewan school divisions.
“In many cases, divisions are doing everything they can to bring as many of those positions back as possible, but they simply don’t have the funding for all of them because of the gap in funding provincially for K to 12 education,” Love said.
Love added that school divisions know the value of these positions
“The provincial government provides the funds that school divisions manage,” he said. “Over the last 12 years in Saskatchewan, we’ve gone from first in the country and per student funding to last in the country. School divisions during nearly all of those years have had to make difficult decisions about what kinds of resources our schools can afford.”
He said that divisions have had to rely on what could be tenuous funding like Jordan’s Principle which could be delayed or not happen at all.
“This is an example of where that failure of the Sask Party government to adequately fund education is coming back to hurt our students because we’re losing these temporary contract Jordan’s Principle EA’s. School divisions do not have the resources to hire them all back, and there will be gaps when kids return next week,” he said.
An update on the Indigenous Services Canada website in February stated that the organization has determined, based on its analysis of legal obligations related to substantive equality under Jordan’s Principle, that funding for items will not be approved unless such funding is required.
One item on the list is school-related requests, unless linked to the specific health, social or educational need of the First Nations child. Supports to school boards off-reserve and private schools will be redirected to provincial school boards, or other existing provincial and federally-funded programs.
Love said that education is a provincial jurisdiction and school divisions are relying on other sources of funding.
“That alone indicates that we are not funding education adequately in this province. If we’re leaving hundreds of students without the supports that they need because of inadequate funding. That’s all the evidence that we need to say to this provincial government that it’s time to step up, fund these positions, backfill these positions so that our kids aren’t the ones left going without the support that they need when they get to school next week,” Love said.
The Daily Herald emailed the provincial government for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
