Minister considers more support for schools after lunch supervision fees added

A lot of parents are unhappy after some school divisions across the province introduced a fee for lunchtime supervision in an effort to keep up with inflation.

Starting in the fall, parents in several of the province’s largest school divisions will have to pay a fee to help offset supervision costs if their child stays at school over the lunch hour.

Premier Scott Moe had his say on the matter, urging school boards to dip into reserves rather than putting that burden onto families.

Education Minister Dustin Duncan joined Gormley on Tuesday and said there have been many factors and challenges over the past couple of years that led to this.

Duncan said the pandemic has caused difficulties in enrolment, which is finally starting to rebound now.

“We’re just now getting back to where school divisions have been funded over the past three years,” Duncan said.

Duncan said some of the staffing positions cut were covered only by temporary funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They were never intended to be permanent, and there now isn’t funding to continue them, because that was not the point of that funding,” he said.

When it comes to using reserve funds to make up the shortfalls, Duncan said school boards have two sets of reserves: Restricted and unrestricted.

Restricted reserves have limitations or regulations set on them by either the government or school boards themselves to complete long-term projects. Unrestricted reserves, on the other hand, consist of surplus funds from budgets that school divisions can dip into when needed.

Unrestricted reserve amounts are not equal across all school divisions, however.

With divisions struggling with rising inflation, Duncan said the government could look at other options for additional funding, possibly through windfall revenue from high resource prices.

“We’re going to have to decide as a province what that looks like in providing those supports,” Duncan said.

While Duncan did not commit to additional funding, he said the ministry will have open conversations with school boards and teachers’ associations about that option.

The minister said he will continue to monitor inflation’s impacts on school boards and families before making a decision about when it is right for the government to step in with more support.