CUPE 8443 says the recent layoff of 80 education assistants within the Saskatoon Public School system says it will hurt all students but will disproportionately impact Indigenous students.

President of the local is Dene Nicholson who describes the situation as devastating to students and staff.

The union says government officials have recently reported that there is a backlog of over 140,000 applications. Saskatchewan has the highest number of unprocessed applications with more than 33,000 claims pending and school divisions in both Alberta and Manitoba have also announced layoffs due to delays in funding.

The union wants the Saskatchewan government to follow the lead of Newfoundland and Labrador and step in with immediate funding to address the shortfalls from the federal backlog. And Nicholson says as far as the union is concerned Saskatoon Public Schools was relying on Jordan’s Principle funding because of gaps created by provincial underfunding.