Sask. Premier Working With Schools to Define ‘Supportive’ Policies Following Change Room Comment

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe speaks to reporters at the Saskatchewan legislature in Regina on Oct. 10, 2023. The Canadian Press/Heywood Yu

Saskatchewan’s Premier Scott Moe says his government is working with school divisions in the province to develop supportive policies for students following his election-time comment about school change room practices.

During the October provincial election campaign, Moe told reporters that his party’s “first order of business” if re-elected was the developing of a change room policy for schools that would require students to use change rooms that correspond to the child’s biological sex.

The issue was not included in Moe’s re-election platform. It was also not discussed during a leadership debate between Moe and Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck.

However, weeks later, after his party’s election win, Moe said he “misspoke,” and that forming a government and setting a legislative agenda were the first order of business.

Moe said more recently that his government is currently working with the province’s school divisions to develop supportive policies for students.

“We’re working right now with the school divisions across the province, all 27 of them, to ensure that there are policies in place that are supportive of every student, in every classroom, in every school,” he told the CBC during a year-end interview.

“That’s a more collaborative approach, and I think it’s an approach that you will see will come to a very strong outcome that supports all students in our schools.”

Moe told reporters on Nov. 7 that he has a “decisive personality” and sometimes speaks before thinking. He said his comments on the campaign trail were one of those times.

He also said that he made the comment shortly after hearing of a complaint where two biological boys used a girls’ locker room in a Saskatchewan school.

At that time, Moe said discussions on the issue would be held after provincial school board elections, which were held on Nov. 13. He said it would be an “ongoing conversation” between the school division chairs and the minister of education.

In the election, the Saskatchewan Party won a fifth-consecutive majority government, but lost some seats to the Saskatchewan NDP compared to the last election.

Moe’s government announced a policy last year to require schools to seek parental consent if students wanted to change their names or pronouns. That policy was challenged in courts by UR Pride, an LGBT peer support group that was granted an injunction against the policy, pending a full hearing.

The government moved the policy forward as a bill, which was passed using the notwithstanding clause in October 2023. The policy requires parental permission for students under 16 years of age who want to change their name or pronoun at school.

Legal hearings on whether the UR Pride challenge to the original policy can proceed through the courts wrapped up on Sept. 24. The provincial Court of Appeal has reserved its decision for a future date.