Arbitration decision will be fully funded, Moe assures teachers

Almost four months after refusing to commit to fully fund a new contract for the province’s teachers, the Saskatchewan government now says it will cover the cost of whatever an arbitrator decides they should be paid.

Premier Scott Moe announced the change, framed as “another step” toward repairing fractious relations with teachers, in a speech to the Saskatoon Teachers’ Association (STA) convention Wednesday morning in Saskatoon.

While some in the education sector have characterized the province’s commitment as the bare minimum, Moe suggested it will “preserve the investment that we have made and continue to make directly into our classrooms.”

“We understand that funding the results of this arbitration process may or may not have to come out of other resources … and we don’t want that, so we’re committed to funding the results of that process,” Moe told reporters after his speech.

Saskatchewan’s 13,500 teachers have been without a contract since Aug. 31, 2017. Binding arbitration began in January, after contract talks reportedly stalled over wages. A decision is expected next month.

The province was reportedly unwilling to budge from its opening position that teachers take a 3.67-per-cent wage decrease, find comparable savings through benefit reductions or accept a 3.5-percent cut in total compensation.

Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) president Pat Maze said he was pleased with Wednesday’s announcement because “it means that students won’t be used as a pawn in funding a new agreement for teachers.”

In 2016, the provincial government opted to only cover half of the 1.9-per-cent wage increase it negotiated with the province’s teachers, forcing local school boards to cover the remaining salary costs.

Before arbitration began, teachers wanted a one-per-cent wage increase plus wage hikes in line with the consumer price index, and non-monetary items such as clear language around duties and working hours.

The government’s new commitment is only a “first step,” Maze said.

“I think they recognized or finally are starting to recognize that it’s their responsibility to fund education, and if we want … the best classroom situations for our students, then that requires a commitment from government to properly fund education.”

Since taking office, Moe has fulfilled his pledge, made during the Saskatchewan Party leadership campaign, to restore $30 million of the roughly $54 million cut from education in the government’s last budget.

In Moe’s first budget as premier, the provincial government committed $1.86 billion to education. While that is 1.6 per cent more than the previous year, Maze has said previously that it won’t even cover the cost of inflation.

Saskatchewan NDP education critic Carla Beck said the government must not only “properly” fund education, but must also repair the “upheaval” and “disrespect” that came along with sizable cutbacks.

Committing to fully fund the teachers’ new contract is “a pretty low bar in terms of what we need to see happen in education,” Beck said Wednesday.

While STA president John Mcgettigan’s introductory speech was filled with jibes about arbitration and suggestions that vision is lacking, Education Minister Gord Wyant said the province is working to fix relations.

Depending on the arbitrator’s ruling, fully funding the contract may put additional pressure on the government’s revenue stream, which Finance Minister Donna Harpauer acknowledged this week is already facing multiple concerns.

The government is currently working to cleave $70 million from its total compensation costs over the next two years, a plan that is understood to have little support from the province’s large publicsector unions.