After years of constrained capital dollars in the Saskatchewan’s education sector, one has to wonder how Shellbrook jumped to the head of the line for a new school.

This is a particularly salient question since no less than an authority than the Ministry of Education’s Capital Planning Branch identified more than 200 schools in worse shape. Yet the new school goes to the Premier’s constituency.

Below is a section from today’s CBC Saskatchewan story, which can be found in its entirety here:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-ndp-scott-moe-shellbrook-school-9.7135453

The issue also came up in the Saskatchewan Legislature, and at an NDP media event in Saskatoon, featuring the party’s education critic, Matt Love. Here’s the section from Saskatchewan Hansard, the official record of Legislative Assembly debates:

If you’d like to wade through the entire back-and-forth of the debate, it can all be found here:

https://docs.legassembly.sk.ca/legdocs/Assembly/Debates/30L2S/20260319Debates.pdf?v=20260320012407

And beyond the allocation of capital dollars, this week’s budget also seems to have once again placed the Moe government on a collision course with the province’s teachers, a few short years after the longest teacher strike in Saskatchewan history.

The province continues to lag behind other jurisdictions when it comes to inflation adjusted per student funding.

And as teachers prepare to resume collective bargaining on a new province-wide contract for their members, it appears this budget has done little to instil confidence.

The graphic to the right is from the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation Instagram account.

Below, once again, content from today’s CBC story, featuring quotes from the President of the Teachers’ Federation.

“Education critic Matt Love says the Saskatchewan budget doesn’t invest enough additional money to address classroom complexity or help with schools that are crumbling or bursting at the seams. The Ministry of Education is getting a two per cent increase, bringing its total to $3.6 billion.” (cbc.ca/sask)

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7134253

And here’s what the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation had to say:

https://www.stf.sk.ca/about-stf/news/budget-2026/

It’s become sadly predictable, according to the NDP’s Matt Love. Limited funding means school board cuts are inevitable.

Love says: “This budget will lead to cuts in our classrooms, and the Sask Party is proving once again that they can’t be trusted to invest in education. They say one thing, but do another. It’s time for change in Saskatchewan!”

Last year:

This year: http://www.40Billion.moe

I don’t agree with everything Thomas Friedman says, but this column provides some depth and context. As he states, in the Middle East, the opposite of autocracy is not always democracy. Further, focussing exclusively on the disintegration of human rights in Iran should not distract us from similar processes in other countries.

For me personally, I will mourn the violence and mourn the suffering, in the lead-up to the war and in the war itself. And I will continue to be saddened that we live in a world where the pain and suffering of the many creates prosperity for some. All across the globe, people behind closed doors are feverishly calculating how this pain and suffering will improve their bottom line.

Let’s work together for a better world.

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

John Muir