Saskatoon Public Schools Cutting About 80 Educational Assistants, Citing Federal Funding Loss

Saskatoon Public Schools says it’s ending contracts for about 80 temporary educational assistants over the next two weeks because it hasn’t received expected federal funding.

In a note to parents, the school division said it hired additional educational assistants expecting to receive federal dollars from Indigenous Services Canada as part of the Jordan’s Principle initiative, which is meant to ensure Indigenous children receive the health, social and education services they need.

That includes funding educational assistants to aid Indigenous children in schools.

The letter said the funding never came.

“Without continued federal funding, it is no longer sustainable to maintain these positions, and the school division lacks the resources to cover the gap,” the letter said to parents.

A classroom of elementary-aged students raise their hands in a classroom, as a male teachers stands by a set of windows in the background. — Other school divisions in Saskatchewan’s major cities have received Jordan’s Principle funding, or have contingency plans as they wait. (Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images)

The letter said Saskatoon Public Schools “managed millions of dollars allocated through Jordan’s Principle” from 2019 to 2024.

It said parents will be notified before Feb. 14 if their child is losing educational assistant support.

CBC contacted other school divisions to see if they were facing similar situations. Spokespeople for Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools and Regina Public Schools said they received funding through Jordan’s Principle this year and are not laying off educational assistants.

Regina Catholic Schools said it is waiting on some funding through Jordan’s Principle, but has no plans for staff layoffs and is relying on contingency plans made during its budgeting process.

In November, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered Ottawa to address a backlog of assistance requests under the Jordan’s Principle program. Federal lawyers filed an application for a judicial review of that order in December.

The government had identified 140,000 unprocessed applications — 25,000 of them labelled as urgent — but couldn’t say when they would be cleared.

Jordan’s Principle is named after Jordan River Anderson, a Norway House Cree Nation boy born with multiple disabilities in 1999. He spent his entire life in hospital because Manitoba and Ottawa couldn’t agree on who would pay the costs of his home care. He died at age five.

CBC has contacted Indigenous Services Canada, which oversees the program, for response.

Saskatchewan NDP education critic Matt Love said the provincial government should work with affected school divisions and the federal government to ensure the divisions are properly funded.

“We have a system in need of supports for students with intensive support needs and now we have a loss of 80 professionals who provide those supports,” said Love.

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