Teachers across the province are now ensconced in the first round of bargaining with the existing contract of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) set to expire on June 30.
It's the only negotiated agreement signed by BCTF members since its formation in the 1980s, with all other contracts imposed by legislation, usually after a strike.
Cariboo Chilcotin Teachers Association (CCTA) president Joan Erb says the current workload of teachers is extremely demanding, with "a whole whack" of children falling through the cracks of ministry categorizing for special needs, so they aren't assigned any extra funding.
Meanwhile, she adds teachers' salaries have dropped from third to eighth in the country during the term of this contract.
"Even when we were third, we lagged miles behind first and second. We just want to catch up with our neighbouring provinces, given that we have the highest cost of living."
Now that B.C. has a new premier, she says, it would be a "real good move on [Christy Clark’s] part" to make amends with teachers by sitting down in good faith at the bargaining table and listening to teachers.
BCTF president Susan Lambert has also recently called on the Clark government to reverse Campbell's cuts.
"We urge her to reset the government's priorities, to reinvest in public education, to return to smaller classes, to hire specialist teachers, to reinstate services to students with special needs, to restock the shelves of school libraries and to restore the rights that were stripped away from our profession."
The primary media contact for Education Minister George Abbott said neither the education minister nor Clark have anything to do with the points raised by Lambert or Erb, directing media questions to the BC Public School Employers' Association (BCPSEA).
Last month, however, Abbott is on record saying the government's net zero mandate restricts BCTF wage increases to being offset by other savings.
"I appreciate that will perhaps make discussions with the teachers' federation a challenging one, but I think there are a great many issues that we can discuss in relation to both the student performance within the B.C. education system and the teacher satisfaction within the B.C. education system."
Meanwhile, BCPSEA chief executive officer Hugh Finlayson says he can't comment on Lambert's comments on provincial policies, only on negotiations.
After the success of the collective agreement in 2006, he adds, there is hope to achieve a negotiated deal but it’s going to be "a tough round” of bargaining.
"The BCTF has already indicated they want substantial wage increases in a net zero compensation mandate."
SD27 board chair Wayne Rodier says he and most of the other trustees can't comment about bargaining issues due to their conflict of interest position of having spouses or other relatives who are teachers.
Trustee Pete Penner participates as the board's CCTA liaison, and explains the BCPSEA has ministry people sitting on it, so "they are the ones that give the OK or not."
Penner says he personally thinks the provincial government should provide more funding for education in B.C.
"We have very little to offer them if the ministry doesn't give us money for it, so that's the hard part.
"We would like to be able to offer something that's going to keep our teachers about at the same level as they average in Canada."
