Province, teachers reach tentative agreement

The Government of Saskatchewan and the province’s teachers reached a tentative agreement on a new contract Wednesday.

The four-year deal between the Government Trustee Bargaining Committee (GTBC) and the Teachers’ Bargaining Committee (TBC) includes a two per cent salary increase in years two, three and four.

In a release, Education Minister Gordon Wyant said: “This tentative agreement balances our respect and appreciation for teachers with the fiscal realities of the province. The terms of our offer mean that Saskatchewan teachers will have stability for years to come and be paid at five per cent above the Western Canadian average.”

In mid-March the province had last made an offer to teachers that included wage increases, but nothing regarding class size or composition, something teachers had said throughout the process that they were seeking.

Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation President Patrick Maze said it was time to get teachers involved again since so much has changed in the last month with COVID-19.

“The landscape has shifted so significantly that we feel it’s time for members decide if this deal is sufficient for them,” Maze said, mentioning further direction from the province’s 13,500 teachers is required.

“Do you want to keep fighting this or does this contract meet your needs?”

Class composition continues to remain a contentious part of the negotiations. It is once again not included in this tentative agreement, but Maze said some hurdles have been cleared in that regard, like the province restructuring its classroom composition committee to allow more input from teachers and the bargaining committee.

“One thing that has changed: the good work that provincial response team in education has done. We were encouraged by that,” Maze said.

The coronavirus pandemic could eventually have an impact on negotiations with the government if the current agreements isn’t ratified as provincial budgets and any allocated money could change day-to-day.

“The province’s ability to allocate resources to teachers’ salaries is changing, so we thought members should have a say,” Maze said. “Ultimately, if they say they want us to go back and include things like class composition in the contract more substantially then would go back and fight for that.”

Teachers in Saskatchewan have been without a contract since 2019.

Just before schools closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers had been withholding services. That included not supervising extracurricular activities such as sports, musical and dramatic productions, or clubs.

The next step will see the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation presenting the tentative agreement to its 13,500 members for ratification.

With all teachers in the province working remotely from home, a vote on the agreement will have to take place electronically.

Maze said that vote could take three to four weeks before results are finalized.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Keenan Sorokan