The province’s 93,000 teachers will enter into contract negotiations with the province soon, although no formal date has been set.
Paul Wozney, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union says they’re in the process now of determining when that will be.
He says teachers have not forgotten what happened in 2017.
“The cries that went unheard two years ago when Bill 75 was imposed about the deplorable state of classroom conditions remain very much front of mind for teachers.”
Wozney says meetings are being held to determine a date.
He says the government also has to recognize the commitment of Nova Scotia’s 93,000 public school educators.
“Teachers work very hard, they’re very dedicated to supporting students and I don’t think that anybody should be shocked that the teachers will make a reasonable ask around compensation and salaries.”
Wozney says this negotiation will define if the McNeil government is willing to put its money where it’s mouth is when it comes to classroom conditions.
Meanwhile Education Minister Zach Churchill says Paul Wozney is just looking to create news ahead of the negotiations.
“But the fact is that we’ve hired 1300 new people to the education system, a thousand of those being teachers, the rest being non-teaching support staff.”
He says those include teaching assistants, behavioural and autism supports and school psychologists.
Churchill also says the government must always be mindful of the province’s financial situation.
“I just hope that the union leadership recognizes that. If we jeopardize our financial future, future governments are going to have a hard time investing in education and everything else. We need our union leadership to actually have some responsibility in this regard.”
He says Nova Scotia currently spends over $400 million a year just to service the debt created by previous governments.
(Reported by Gary Nickerson)
