No deal yet as talks continue between BCTF and government

WATCH ABOVE: Mon, Sep 15: Marathon talks continue in Richmond in hopes of ending the B.C. teachers strike. Ted Chernecki reports.

VANCOUVER – After hours of negotiations late last week and over the weekend, the BCTF and the provincial government continued meeting on Monday but there is no deal yet.

Talks went late into the night on Sunday and resumed Monday morning. As of 10 p.m. Monday, negotiations had resumed after a short dinner break.

Mediator Vince Ready has been seen outside the Richmond hotel where the two sides are meeting, and he has been shuttling proposals and counter-proposals back and forth.

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The two sides are not meeting face to face but Ready is going between the two rooms.

Both sides are currently imposing a media blackout and won’t comment on the progress of discussions.

WATCH: Legislative Bureau Chief updates the state of negotiations

WATCH: Dr. Charles Jago, former mediator for BCTF and government, talks about the process:

Reporter Ted Chernecki has been outside the hotel all day and he says everything is just going hour by hour, but the good news is that the two sides are still talking.

If a deal is reached late tonight, reporter Keith Baldrey says the teachers would have to vote to ratify it, so that would mean no school for kids on Tuesday anyway.

Last week more than 99 per cent of teachers voted in favour of binding arbitration to end the school strike.

The government has out-ruled this, but it appeared that they are getting more flexible on the contentious E80 clause, which deals with class size and composition.

“We have said clearly, tell us what the problem with E80 is, and we’ll negotiate that,” said Education Minister Peter Fassbender. “And again, negotiations are about give and take.”

In another development, Delta School Board announced that they are going to start handing out math and science textbooks to secondary students so they can start learning what they will be covering this year when students do go back.