Schools, health regions try to make plans amid uncertain funding

It's a shrinking timeline for Saskatchewan schools trying to plan their staffing and resources for the fall, as they wait in limbo to hear what funding they will receive from the provincial budget.

The Saskatchewan government usually releases its budget in March, but it was delayed this year after the government said it would be released after the election. It is now expected on or about June 1.

• Premier says Sask. budget to be expected June 1

That means a waiting and guessing game for public sectors that are used to executing their annual budget in April. School divisions are among those most feeling the pinch.

"We're holding some back in the event that something unexpected happens and we have to adjust things," said Ray Morrison, chairman for Saskatoon public school's Board of Trustees. "On one hand, we know what we have to do.On the other hand, we're hedging our bets a little bit."

Hedging those bets means falling a bit behind on hiring and general planning. They've already made some new hires, but are waiting on some new staff positions they'd like to create after increased enrolment.

Last year, the division received between 500 and 600 students (for which Morrison saidthey never received increased funding) and it is forecasting 400 to 500 new students in the next school year.

"We've made some assumptions that the ministry is actually going to fund our growth for next year."

Morrison estimates about half of the new students over the past few years have been newcomers to Canada, most recently Syrian refugees.

"All of these new students require additional resources and we certainly want to make sure that our students get a quality education ... We want to be very careful of class size, and make up, and those things."

While Morrison expects an increase in funding, those additional resources are still just a dream until they see the cash from the province.

"We're still holding back a little bit," he said. "Much harder to withdraw an offer of employment than it is to make one a little bit late."

Like the Saskatoon Public School Division, Prairie Valley School Division has been preparing different funding models as they always do. They range from best case scenario to worst case scenario. Unlike Saskatoon Public, Prairie Valley is at the same planning stage and hiring stage it usually is at this time of year.

"There is some risk in making these commitments now without knowing the revenue side of the equation," said Naomi Mellor, chief financial officer with Prairie Valley. "But there's greater risk in waiting to put plans in place until we know the budget."

School divisions are usually expected to submit their own budgets to the Ministry of Education by June 30. That could mean 29 days between knowing their funding and having their plan in place. Morrison said he's quite sure that won't happen this year, and they're already planning board meetings into July.

Saskatoon Health Region hopes budget doesn't delay capital projects

Most groups aren't expecting big funding increases from the Saskatchewan government after lower resource prices have hit hard and Premier Brad Wall has announced it will be a deficit budget. That's where the Saskatoon Health Region finds itself.

• Premier Brad Wall says deficit will be higher than forecast

"Our planning for this year has been based on assuming a scenario of minimal increases if any," said Nilesh Kavia, vice-president of finance and corporate services for the health region. "That way we're planning kind of for the worst case."

Kavia saidhe hopes a possible June 1 budget won't significantly delay capital projects that they're waiting to start on until they know their funding.

"This year is not business as usual because we will be running a deficit at the," he said. "We ran a deficit last year in (20)15-16 and we're just finalizing our numbers.But we're expecting to be at about $35.7 million deficit at the end of the year, and we know that we need to close that gap going into this year. So that's been our focus on our sustainability plan."