Provincial grant funding, $2.3 million, has been approved for over 40 playground projects in Saskatchewan.
Three schools in Saskatoon — St. Paul School, Bishop Filevich Ukrainian School, and St. Anne School — will receive the funding. The government says the goal of the grants that were launched in the fall is to help parents build new play facilities for their children on school grounds.
The project lead for the St. Anne project, Brittany Hiebert, is putting together an accessible playground for the school. Hiebert shared with Global News that her daughter was in an accident that resulted in her using a wheelchair.
She says the reason she took over the project is because of her daughter, and she recognized Saskatoon has very limited accessible playgrounds on school grounds.
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“This needed to change, and I wanted to give the opportunity for children of all abilities to be able to participate in play,” she told Global News.
Hiebert says typical playgrounds have sand and lots of stairs, both of which are unfit for somebody with mobility aids. She believes accessible playgrounds should be the standard.
“Just being able to participate just brings joy,” she said. “It’s normal they want to be able to be involved, so being able to access playgrounds, that really is normal for them. This should be abnormal where they can’t participate.”
The new playground for St. Anne’s school will feature ramps, lowered components like monkey bars, and a rubber ground that is suitable for kids and even parents in wheelchairs. The current playground at St. Anne’s will stay and the accessible playground will be built behind the existing one.
Saskatoon has current accessible playgrounds, but only one on school grounds at John Dolan School.
“Schools are still very inaccessible for children, children in a wheelchair, children with disabilities, so I think it’s really important that we start working towards that,” Hiebert said. The other accessible facilities in the city are destination play areas where families have to take a trip to go to the playground.
The school has gathered around 80 per cent of the playgrounds’ funding while they continue to raise money. They hope to complete construction in the summer of 2026.
Watch above for more on why accessible playgrounds are important on school grounds.
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