York District Catholic School Board, province & teachers reach deal
Posted August 22, 2012 12:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The start of the school year is no longer up in the air for students in the York District Catholic School Board after it signed on to the province’s proposed contract for teachers. Two major unions, meanwhile, continue to oppose the government’s plan to freeze teachers’ wages.
Education minister Laurel Broten announced the development on Wednesday and said it provides “certainty” for families of the more than 55,000 students who attend classes in the board.
“I’m very pleased with them for that leadership and I think that their families and parents will also be very pleased to get that news,” she said.
The Liberals are recalling the legislature on Monday to introduce a bill that would impose a contract on teachers that would include a wage freeze and would rein-in benefits. The province has come to agreements with the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association and its French teachers. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation oppose the deal.
School boards have until Aug. 31 to reach agreements with the unions.
On Wednesday, Progressive Conservative (PC) Leader Tim Hudak said he doesn’t believe the Liberals are putting forward a true wage freeze. He claims there’s a $300-million gap because about 40 per cent of teachers are “moving up the grid” and are set to collect an extra $7,000 a year.
Hudak said his party has been “reasonable” in dealing with the Liberals on the proposed legislation. “You get half a loaf and you take it,” he said.
The PCs are calling for an across-the-board public sector wage freeze — that’s something the Liberals recently said wouldn’t hold up in the courts in a constitutional challenge. But the Liberals insist their proposed wage freeze for teachers would stand the legal test due to the length of negotiations and the province’s dire financial situation with a $15-billion deficit.
Ontario NDP education critic Peter Tabuns wants the Liberals to release documents to back up their assertion that their wage plan will hold up.
“This scheme will hurt kids in the classroom and leave families paying more,” Tabuns said in a statement on Wednesday. “If the government has some evidence that the same schemes they denounced just weeks ago will now work, they should make them public today.”
The Liberals say their proposed teachers contract would save the province $2 billion.
