Teachers’ union wants raises in year ahead

VANCOUVER The union representing British Columbia teachers will look to boost salaries, when their contract negotiations open later this year.

B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Glen Hansman told a crowd at the union’s annual general meeting Saturday night that the province’s low starting salaries mean that B.C. still isn’t attracting enough qualified teachers to fill a shortage that continues to reverberate across the province.

B.C. starting salaries are $10,000 to $15,000 lower than Ontario or Alberta, he said in an interview before his speech. That makes B.C. and Quebec the lowest in Canada, he said.

“We don’t set our (bargaining) objectives until the fall, but it could be fair to assume that given affordability issues in British Columbia, salary is going to be very important to look at, as well as unaddressed issues around class size and composition,” Hansman said.

Public sector bargaining begins in less than 10 months for the BCTF, he said. It is one of several unions that will renegotiate their contracts, which expire in June 2019, with the province.

British Columbia school districts have been since the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of restoring language around class size and composition. About 3,500 positions have been filled and 300 remain open.

Hansman said that doesn’t tell the whole story. The shortage of substitute teachers remains a problem, especially in Metro Vancouver. It means that when a teacher is absent, there is a domino effect in classrooms, with special-education and English-language teachers being pulled from their assignments to fill in.