Ontario MPPs are returning early from holidays after the minority Liberal government announced it is recalling the legislature early to introduce a bill to impose a two-year wage freeze on tens of thousands of elementary and high school teachers.
MPPs are expected back in the legislature on Monday.
Premier Dalton McGuinty spoke about the pending legislation at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference held in Ottawa earlier this week.
“This is not an easy time. It makes for more difficult relationships – understandably so,” the premier said in an AMO press release. He called the legislation “a last resort.”
Upper Grand District School Board chairman Bob Borden said negotiations with its teacher unions will continue. The board has had informal discussions with its unions and set up tentative dates in September for talks. The board is talking with 11 bargaining units representing its 3,000 teachers, who are part of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) or the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.
“If they come out with legislation, it takes the powder out of the gun,” Borden said, referring to a halt to local contract talks should the legislature pass.
Borden believes the legislation is similar to an agreement reached by English and French Catholic school teachers with the province in early July. That agreement saw the sides agree to a two-year wage freeze and three unpaid sick days for teachers.
The Catholic teacher agreement also goes a step further, according to Borden, by eliminating internal student testing within a board’s jurisdiction and preventing board principals from seeking out teachers with the best qualifications for vacant positions.
“They (the provincial government) are using the Catholic and French contracts as a template,” he said of hiring restrictions. “I’m not being guaranteed I’m getting the best teacher.”
The internal testing done by individual boards is essential to “identify schools that may have needs,” he added.
The internal testing is different from province-wide testing that takes place each year to determine where students rank from an educational standpoint on learning and retaining what they have learned. Borden said the internal testing identifies needs at each of the schools under the board’s jurisdiction. Internally the testing involves students from Kindergarten to Grade 3 and from Grade 4 to Grade 8.
Provincial legislation, if passed, would remove the local board’s power to deal with those specific internal issues, Borden said.
Government House Leader John Milloy said the government cannot allow old contracts to automatically roll over Sept. 1 when the government is facing a $15 billion deficit.
“Over a year, it would cost an additional $473 million in pay hikes and bankable sick days,” he said.
“The unions understand the need for restraint and we understand the need for restraint,” Borden said of the current round of talks locally.
“We’re going to carry through as we normally do until there’s legislation.” The minority Liberals will require support from the Conservatives or New Democrats to pass the legislation.
ETFO president Sam Hammond condemned the proposed legislation on a posting on the federation website.
“The government’s legislation is unprecedented and goes far beyond any wage restraint or back-to-work legislation ever enacted in Ontario,” Hammond said. “This legislation is obviously designed to put politics first, not students, first. The government is putting its own short-term political gain ahead of students.
“The government continues to deceive the public by saying it needs to pass this unnecessary legislation in order to preserve the school year,” Hammond added. “ETFO has said, over and over again, and school boards have confirmed, that the school year will begin as it always has.”
Perth-Wellington Conservative MPP Randy Pettapiece said his party has not yet seen the legislation. The Conservatives, he stated, are calling for an across-the-board wage freeze in the public sector. “I can’t tell what we’re going to do. We have to look at it first and see what we’re going to do,” Pettapiece said.
