Sask. minister suggests schools can get Canadian Tire flagpoles to comply with new policy

Saskatchewan's justice minister says critics of Saskatchewan's school provincial flag policy are overstating the financial consequences of the new rule.

During an overhaul of Saskatchewan's education act to require parental consent for youth under 16 years old to use a different pronoun at school, the Saskatchewan Party government also made it mandatory to fly the provincial flag at schools.

Some school divisions CTV News contacted declined to comment on the new policy.

However, Prairie Valley School Division said 25 of its 39 schools have just one flagpole outside — meaning more may have to be installed.

Earlier this week NDP Leader Carla Beck said the government should foot the bill given the budgetary pressures school divisions face.

“Who’s going to pay for it?” she asked. “That would be the sort of thing I would expect a government who brought us in for an emergency session would have thought about ahead of time.”

While speaking in the legislature on Wednesday, Minister of Justice Bronwyn Eyre pushed back against Beck's argument.

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"I understand that you can buy flags and the poles pretty reasonably at Canadian Tire," Eyre said.

She went on to say Quebecers’ love of their flag "borders on the spiritual."

"Why should that love, that association, that historical association and bond be limited to one province? We have that too," Eyre said.

The province has said it is still working to determine how many flags are needed to supply the 600 schools across Saskatchewan.

In addition to the flag and pronoun policies introduced during the emergency legislative session last month, the government made changes to allow parents to opt their kids out of sexual health presentations.

The emergency recall of the legislature came after a judge put the pronoun policy on hold until it could be fully reviewed in court.

--With files from Donovan Maess