By far the biggest story at the legislature this past week was presentation of the 2015 budget.
It was a confident and, at the end, emotional address by finance minister Ken Krawetz in the legislature Wednesday afternoon, his last budget before he leaves politics next year.
As quoted from Hansard: Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt this is a challenging budget, but the good news is Saskatchewan has never been in a better position to meet this challenge. More people live here than ever before. Our unemployment rate continues to be the lowest in Canada. Exports are at an all-time high. Businesses continue to show tremendous confidence in Saskatchewan’s future through major capital investments. But what gives me the most confidence is our people, Saskatchewan people: cautious yet confident, humble yet self-assured, hard working and compassionate and always optimistic about our province’s future.
So as I conclude my final budget speech, that is why I can say with confidence that Saskatchewan will meet these challenges: because Saskatchewan is strong and our best days are still ahead. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Not surprisingly, NDP finance critic, Regina Rosemont MLA Trent Wotherspoon, had a different view in expressing his party’s opposition to the budget.
Wotherspoon: There are a few things that stand out as bad calls for us as the opposition. The seniors’ care crisis is being ignored. The funding that’s announced in this budget won’t even address the so-called urgent issues identified by the health regions over a year ago. The needs in crumbling hospitals are being ignored. There’s lots of numbers being announced, but there’s only $28 million set aside to repair health care buildings, and that’s a tiny fraction of what’s needed.
The government is actually kicking 6,000 middle-class seniors off the seniors’ drug plan. The graduate retention program is being walked back on students. Parents will no longer get the Saskatchewan employment supplement once their kids are over the age of 12, and everyone in this room can identify with the costs of raising a 12- or 13- or 14-year-old.
Once promised and desperately needed, child care spaces are not going to happen, and the problems in our schools, particularly class sizes and the ratios of teachers and educational assistants to students with additional needs, is not going to get any better in this budget. This government is actually slashing English as an additional language supports on top of that, straining classrooms even further.
It was on the latter point – English as a second language – that opposition leader Cam Broten began what turned out to be a lengthy and fiery debate on the issue in Question Period the following day.
Mr. Broten: — My question is for the Premier. Why is this government cutting funding for English as an additional language supports?
In his extensive response, premier Brad Wall denied there were cuts.
Hon. Mr. Wall: — Mr. Speaker, I would point out to members opposite as well and members of the House that this government is the government that’s actually undertaken unprecedented moves in the middle of a calendar year, where we’ve noted pressures in a particular division, pressures in a particular school, to provide more funding for things like English as a second language, for more EAs [educational assistants] and more classroom supports than we’ve had in the past.
Mr. Speaker, this is reflective of the priorities of the government in terms of education and will be reflected in terms of our priorities going forward as well.
Broten, in rebuttal, pointed to a flyer sent out by Prairie Spirit School Division outlining cuts to services. Wall responded that flyer was sent out prior to the budget.
Mr. Broten: — Mr. Speaker, the school division sent this piece of paper home with the students because they were already frustrated with the funding that has not been coming from this government, Mr. Speaker. And Saskatchewan people certainly won’t be happy with a 30 per cent reduction in English as an additional language supports. …
We have increasingly diverse needs in the classrooms. We have the intensification of work for teachers. We have desperately needed resources in classrooms in order to ensure student success. Yet this government, Mr. Speaker, cuts funding for English as an additional language by 30 per cent. What does the premier have to say to the province’s teachers who will be incredibly frustrated by this short-sighted decision?
The Speaker: — I recognize the premier.
Hon. Mr. Wall: — Mr. Speaker, there’s been no cut to ESL [English as a second language] of 30 per cent. That’s certainly the information we have before us in the House. That needs to be clarified on the record.
Secondly, with respect to this newsletter and with respect to Prairie Spirit, I invite the Hon. Leader of the Opposition of the NDP [New Democratic Party] to consider the facts. Since 2007 this division has received a 27 per cent increase in operating funding, outpacing their enrolment growth, which was 18 per cent — 18 per cent enrolment growth — 27 per cent, up until yesterday, in increased operating funds. And with the Minister of Finance’s budget brought down yesterday, the numbers have only increased.
Broten continued to hammer the issue of ESL funding, and the result was some testy exchanges in Question Period:
Mr. Speaker. My question to the Premier: how on Earth can he justify cutting direct supports for teachers, for students, despite the growing needs in our classrooms?
The Speaker: —I recognize the Premier.
Hon. Mr. Wall: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How on Earth can the Leader of the Opposition stand in his place and make stuff up? Here are the facts, Mr. Speaker. We have responded to the needs in school divisions by increasing operating funding by 31 per cent.
Later on, just as Education Minister Don Morgan was about to respond to some of Broten’s questions, Broten himself got testy towards the premier.
Mr. Broten: — Mr. Speaker, he can huff and he can puff, Mr. Speaker, but he needs to provide this answer to the parents and to the teachers in the province. Why did this government . . . And now he’s passing it off to the education minister. Isn’t that typical?
