A Supreme Court of Canada decision this week is expected to mean more teachers will be added in B.C. schools. The country’s highest court sided with the BC Teachers’ Federation in a case that dealt with class size and composition issues.
In 2002 the provincial government, and then Education Minister Christy Clark, took class size and composition off the bargaining table and out of teachers contracts.
Footage from that era shows Vernon teachers marching behind a makeshift hearse containing a paper coffin. They were protesting what they described as the death of collective bargaining.
This week’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling returns that pre-2002 language to contracts and will renew negotiations between the teacher’s union and the province on class size and composition.
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“If it goes back precisely… it is going to mean smaller classes. It is going to mean more specialized teachers,” said the president of the Central Okanagan Teachers’ Association, Susan Bauhart.
Speaking Friday in West Kelowna, Premier Christy Clark did not seem surprised by the ruling.
“We knew this was a possible outcome so we are ready to sit down [and] negotiate that. We all want to put more special needs teachers in classrooms. We all want to make sure that classes are the right size for kids,” said Clark.
That’s expected to mean more staff in B.C. schools. The teachers’ union believes the cost could be as high as $300 million, an estimated $12 million in the Central Okanagan School District alone.
“That’s an awful lot of teachers,” said Bauhart.
“We are in one of the more fortunate districts in that a lot of people want to live here. It will be a challenge across the province to get things back up to the levels that were in the collective agreement.”
The decision is bittersweet for teachers.
“There has been a whole generation of students…who have gone through a system that was under-funded and the supports were not in place there,” said Bauhart.
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However, Clark argues the results in schools speak for themselves.
“We are putting more money into education per child today in British Columbia than we ever have in history and we are getting better outcomes all the time,” said Clark.
Clark assured parents that the ruling won’t mean more labour unrest.
“This court decision means we are going to sit down and talk about two really important clauses in the contract but the contract stays in place. Labour peace stays in place,” said Clark.
– with files from The Canadian Press, Amy Judd
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