KEVIN MENZ
Associate News Editor

The University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union was pleased with the provincial government’s 2011-12 budget released March 23.

All year, the USSU lobbied for improved childcare, better Aboriginal inclusion on campus, a provincial scholarship plan and for consistent tuition increases.

The budget took all these issues into consideration.

Approximately $34 million was dedicated to what the government called its “children and youth agenda,” which is devoted to childcare, education and First Nations issues.

For students, this will eventually mean more childcare spaces on campus.

“They said, I believe, $2.1 million for new childcare spaces and it specifically said some of that would be dedicated to the university,” said the USSU’s vice president of external affairs Blair Shumlich, adding that he’s excited to see how the childcare task force will implement the money on campus.

“There was also a real push by the ministry on Aboriginal and Métis learners — especially in post-secondary education, be it from technical schools all the way up to post-doctorate degrees,” said Shumlich. “They weren’t extraordinarily specific on it, but I suspect there will be more support for northern students coming here.”

According to the Leader-Post, $2.9 million will be devoted to increasing high school completion rates and improving achievement for First Nations and Métis students.

Shumlich was also pleased with the introduction of a strong scholarship plan.

“The Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship Fund has been my big priority this year. It is a matching grant program which the government has put $3 million into,” he said.

“We’ve heard that this is just a start and not where it will end up, so hopefully that’s an indication that more money will be put into it as more donors are attracted to it.”

Missing from the budget was funding for the Gordon Oakes-Red Bear Centre — the proposed new Aboriginal Students’ Centre — and funding for student residences.

“We did ask that the government to put money into phase two of College Quarter construction, but that didn’t happen,” said Shumlich.

He did acknowledge, however, that while the budget did not directly answer any of the university’s housing needs, the government announced province-wide funding for housing on the Monday following the budget.

“They just announced $250 million for housing and whenever they increase the amount of low income and rental housing in Saskatoon, market forces should lower rents and free up spaces.”

Finally, he was pleased with the increase in the university’s operating grant.

“The university is going to be very, very close to its operating forecast, so there won’t be any cuts to the student experience,” he said. “There was enough of an increase in the operating grant that tuition increases will be kept at an average of three per cent per student.”

While he would have liked to see a more long-term plan for increasing tuition, he was pleased with the three per cent increase.

“We’ve seen some program and sessional cuts, and the reality is that we can’t decrease tuition. That’s why we asked for increases,” said Shumlich, adding that he feels tuition freezes do not work.

“We’re happy with the number.”

Overall, he said that the USSU was pleased with how the last two provincial budgets handled student needs.

“Every single thing that students could have asked for has been covered by this budget,” he said. “If you look at the stuff they did last year in conjunction with this year, it’s a great direction.”

2011-2012 Saskatchewan Provincial Budget