Murray Wood: Hard to know how much confidence to have in the Sask. budget
After last year's Saskatchewan budget went from a tiny surplus to a major deficit, Murray Wood says it's difficult to sa...
While the Official opposition has made clear its stance on the latest provincial budget, an assortment of reaction is coming in from across Saskatchewan.
Many sectors are questioning whether what has been allotted will be enough for the needs in each respective area.
Some are positive about the budget: Martensville’s mayor is favourable to the new school scheduled to be built near his city and Warman. Those involved in medical imaging in the health care sector are also pleased with increases to funding, though he noted the next step will be balancing the high demand for those services.
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Other areas of the health sector and many in education in the province have concerns, though, after seeing the numbers for this year’s budget, as do food banks and those advocating for people living in poverty in Saskatchewan.
Mayor reacts to new school for Martensville-Warman
There’s funding for three new schools in the provincial budget, including a joint-use middle and high school in Martensville-Warman.
The money is part of the $123.8 million set aside for school capital and the new educational facility will welcome both Catholic and public school students.
City of Martensville Mayor, Kent Muench, said the two communities currently don’t have a Catholic high school and their public high schools are full.
According to reporting from 650 CKOM, Warman’s high school was operating at 103 per cent capacity and Martensville’s at 92 per cent in May 2025.
The issue is only projected to worsen.
“Obviously both communities are growing at a fairly rapid rate, and so lots of young families moving in,” Muench said.
For Muench, this funding represented the provincial government’s recognition of capacity concerns. The new school will both create more space and enhance the quality of education, with Muench saying there will be extra programming now available to students.
While the mayor has a general idea of where the school will be built, he didn’t share an exact location, instead saying those details will be made public in the very near future. He did clarify, though, that there’s “a node that kind of is between the two communities, and so the site will be in that area.”
In May of last year, a proposal was on the table for the school to be built on Township Road 384, east of Martensville and southwest of Warman.
There’s no clear date yet on when workers will break ground on the new building.
Though the years-long process of getting to this point wasn’t easy, Muench said it’s a concrete example to the public of the work that’s been done.
“I think it shows – not just our region but the province – (when) you can work together, you can do a lot of great things,” he said.
In an emailed statement, Prairie Spirit School Division shared the funding from the province will go towards the project’s design and planning, although it’s still unknown exactly how much of the $123.8 million budget the new school is getting.
Once that’s finalized, it’ll be a multi-year project to get the school built. The location will be shared as planning progresses, according to the division’s statement.
School representatives mixed, cite rising costs and strained system
Saskatchewan School Boards Association president, Dr. Shawn Davidson, said the operating side of the budget largely met expectations but left open the question of whether it would cover rising costs.
“On the operating side, it’s pretty much what we expected,” Davidson said.
He noted school divisions are still reviewing the details to determine how far the funding would go.
“We’re uncertain at this time whether that’s going to cover all of our cost drivers.”
Davidson pointed to transportation as a major concern, citing rising costs.
“The cost of school buses has almost doubled in the last five years, and now we’re seeing a real spike in fuel costs,” he explained, also raising concerns about aging infrastructure and limited funding for repairs.
“Sixty-five million dollars is not going to go very far.”
He did acknowledge continued funding for student programming, which he said has been successful in helping support students.
Shandel McLeod, a member of the Education Workers Steering Committee with CUPE Saskatchewan, said the budget failed to address staffing shortages among non-teaching staff in schools.
“It’s absolutely crap. I think it’s a joke,” McLeod said.
She noted no funding was directed toward support workers working with children in schools, despite ongoing concerns. McLeod described a system under strain, with workers stretched thin and struggling financially.
“We’re not allowed to take our breaks, we’re not getting the hours that we need.”
She added that some workers are relying on food banks or taking on multiple jobs to make ends meet.
“We have people who are going to the food bank, people who have to work two or three other jobs just to survive. They come every day to do what’s best for the kids in our schools, but it’s not good enough anymore,” McLeod said. “We have people who are homeless but are still coming to work and can’t make ends meet,” McLeod said.
She called for a more direct investment in frontline staff.
“We’re always told how valued we are, but what I’m seeing today is that we’re not valued.”
Mixed budget reviews: SUMA
Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) president, Randy Goulden, said the provincial budget delivered both positives and concerns for cities and towns across the province.
She said municipalities welcomed an increase in revenue sharing, but warned it would not keep pace with rising costs.
“We saw some things that we were pleased with and we saw some things that we’re concerned with,” Goulden said.
She added that urban municipalities continue to face growing pressure to maintain infrastructure and deliver services.
“Our urban municipalities are under a great deal of stress and pressure to provide the infrastructure needs and the programming and the services that our residents require.”
Goulden said escalating costs remain a key issue.
“What we did see in the municipal revenue sharing will not keep up with those escalating costs,” she said, pointing out municipalities cannot run deficits. “We have to balance our budgets.”
Health care sector concerned over staff shortages, applauds diagnostic funding
Bashir Jalloh, president of CUPE 5430, which represents more than 14,000 health-care workers, said the budget did not address staffing shortages or working conditions in the system.
“There is nothing in this budget that addresses the root cause, which is the short staffing and the low morale,” Jalloh said.
He said workers across hospitals and long-term care are exhausted and feel ignored.
“Staff are burned out. We don’t feel heard, we don’t feel acknowledged.”
Jalloh also pointed to ongoing contract issues, saying workers have gone years without agreements or wage increases.
“We have been bargaining for over three years, we have been without a wage.”
He raised further concerns about privatization, saying it pulls staff out of the public system.
“It doesn’t work; it is taking trained and qualified people from the public system into the private system,” Jalloh said.
Jalloh called for meaningful solutions must involve workers directly.
“It has to start with consultation; they have to come and talk with health-care workers.”
Saskatchewan Health Authority medical imaging head, Sheldon Wiebe, said the budget included expected funding increases to address growing demand for diagnostic services.
“From our perspective, it was a positive one,” Wiebe said.
He said demand for services such as MRI, CT, and PET scans continues to rise.
“We are in a high-demand scenario in medical imaging.”
While he welcomed the funding, Wiebe said evaluating whether it is enough is not straightforward.
“It’s complicated, it becomes very difficult to put things into binary situations.” He added that improving the system also depends on how resources are used.
“We have to figure out how to meet the needs of the people who really need it,” Wiebe said. “Balancing demand and prioritization is key. If we’re doing everything for everybody, the meaning of what we’re doing gets lost.”
Budget “disappointment”: Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry
Peter Gilmer, an advocate with the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry, raised concerns over the affordability measures in the budget.
He stated that Saskatchewan already has the deepest poverty level and highest child poverty rate compared to other provinces.
In May, the provincial government is set to increase income support and disability benefits by two per cent, which Gilmer said is not even close to adequate. Benefits are already low for programs such as Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) and the Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability Program (SAID), he shared.
“On the SIS program on average an individual is looking at about $1,000 a month to meet all of their needs, and roughly $1350 per month for an individual on the SAID program,” Gilmer said.
The province is winding down the Saskatchewan Rental Housing Supplement by August of 2026, which Gilmer said will be difficult for those who struggle with affording rent.
“Pulling one of those key supports that people have had to be able to cover the cost of their rent is of deep concern to us,” he said.
The budget also includes a $1000 one time repayable benefit to help SIS members with utility arrears.
“It does get clawed back from your benefit,” Gilmer said. “Ultimately, you’re paying for that utility, just in a different way.
“It will make a little bit of difference for people because there are so many people who found themselves in utility arrears, but really, it’s not a replacement for having the actual cost of utilities covered.”
No new funding for food banks
Food banks in Saskatchewan won’t receive any new funding in this provincial budget, which was “disappointing,” according to Laurie O’Connor, executive director of the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre.
“It was difficult to see that food banks across the province wouldn’t be supported again,” O’Connor said. “We know in tough economic times, food bank usage will increase because people will be struggling to put food on the table.”
O’Connor said the Saskatoon food bank assists nearly 23,000 a month and the need continues to grow without any major changes to minimum wage or income support. For meaningful change to come for people facing poverty, the province should consider raising minimum wage and assistance rates to sustainable levels, so people are not forced to rely on community services, O’Conner shared.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that folks aren’t vulnerable and I think that the government has a responsibility to contribute to that,” she said.
In July 2024, the province made a two-year commitment, totaling $2 million for 36 Saskatchewan food banks.
O’Connor said the funding made a noticeable difference when purchasing essentials like milk, but said the food bank’s services will continue to grow until there is more economic stabilization.
– with files from 650 CKOM’s Marija Robinson and Mia Holowaychuk and 980 CJME’s Jacob Bamhour
