FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2025
Deer Lake, NL – Today, Premier John Hogan, KC, leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador, joined by Liberal Candidate for Humber-Gros Morne, Helen Reid, announced new measures to support families with children in school.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s education system is the bedrock of our society, culture and identity, and it is the key to our province’s future prosperity. Over the past number of years, your Liberal government has made huge investments in our education system, through the construction of new schools, the introduction and expansion of $10-a-day child care, adding more than 400 educators and learning assistants to classrooms, increased funding for technology devices and infrastructure in schools, and targeted recruitment and retention initiatives for positions in hard-to-fill rural and remote areas.
As we continue to invest in our schools and teachers, we recognize that preparing for a new school year can be expensive. For many families, the cost of annual school supplies puts a burden on their budget. We sometimes see our teachers going above and beyond by paying out of pocket for supplies for their students, and this is not right.
A re-elected Liberal Government will give parents and teachers a financial break and peace of mind by providing free school supplies for all students from Kindergarten to Grade 6, beginning in September 2026.
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development will work with NLSchools and Le Conseil scolaire francophone provincial, in consultation with educators, to issue bulk requests for proposals from retailers to provide standardized school supplies for students across the province. Schools will then distribute supplies as required throughout the school year. By ordering in bulk, we will be able to keep costs low while delivering high quality supplies to every student in the province.
This will cost an additional $3 million per year, and directly helps families in Newfoundland and Labrador with the cost of living.
We also know that students will be able to use those supplies to their fullest potential when their bellies are full of healthy, nutritious food. That’s why last year we were the first province in Canada to join the National School Food Program to provide lunches to thousands of children across the province.
Under Budget 2025, we announced another $24 million to continue expanding our school food programming for Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 9 schools. By the end of this 2025-26 school year, it is anticipated that approximately 40,000 students will have access to the pay-what-you-can school lunch model.
A re-elected Liberal government will further expand the school lunch program to cover all Newfoundland and Labrador Pre-Kindergarden to Grade 9 students under this program by the end of the 2026-2027 school year.
With the added revenue from the new Churchill Falls MOU, our Liberal team will be able to further address affordability and invest in our children. Together, these measures will help save money for parents and teachers, and improve overall student well-being and learning potential.
With real momentum, energy and leadership, the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador is embracing our province’s tremendous opportunities to deliver a stronger future for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
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Media Contact:
Ben Murphy
Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador
Tel: 709-740-3156
E-mail: [email protected]