Editor's note: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
With the start of the 2023-24 academic year just one week away, Ontario's education minister's mind was on settling unfinished contract negotiations with unions to avoid disruptions in the province's public schools for the first time in years.
While unveiling an outline of the Progressive Conservative (PC) government's plans for this school year on Monday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce called on unions of teachers and other school system workers to accept offers eliminating the possibility of striking by allowing arbitrators to decide new contracts as a worst-case scenario.
Lecce and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) announced on Friday that the government and union's leadership had reached a strike-preventing agreement, which the union's 60,000 members will vote on to either confirm or reject. If accepted, it would put arbitrators in the position to decide leftover terms of a new collective bargaining agreement if the government and union can't by Oct. 27.
"Today, we've asked our remaining teacher unions to meet with the government to reach a similar agreement — to sign this deal — that will keep our kids in school," Lecce said at a media event held at a newly rebuilt school in Thornhill.
Unions unsold so far
The call by the education minister was towards the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) and the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), the three other unions of public school system workers that have yet to sign new contracts with the government since theirs expired last year. These three unions said on Friday that they weren't interested in agreeing to enter binding arbitration, like OSSTF's leadership did.
Such a proposal "would all but guarantee that the key issues we have brought forward at our respective bargaining tables, which are critical to learning and working conditions in our schools, would not be addressed," the AEFO, ETFO and OECTA said in a joint statement on Friday.
These unions also accused Premier Doug Ford's PC government of "continually (refusing) to engage in substantive discussions with our unions," including on issues like "increased violence in schools, resources and supports for student mental health, teachers’ use of professional judgment, and addressing the teacher shortage."
Lecce on Monday insisted the government's appeal to education worker unions isn't about getting around their right to strike.
"I think this is a sensible step forward to provide stability for kids ... because the threat of never-ending strikes and withdrawal of services, I think we recognize that it can really setback kids and their academic and their physical and mental health," he said.
The previous academic year would have been the first in Ontario since 2018-2019, the Ford PCs' first year in government, without significant disruptions in schools had it not been for the drama around Bill 28.
Instead, most of the province's schools closed for two days last fall after the Ford government passed a law to impose a contract on a Canadian Union of Public Employees' (CUPE) union of education workers that used the notwithstanding clause to make striking by its members illegal. Supported by numerous other labour groups from across Canada, the CUPE union's workers held a strike anyway, leading the Ford government to reverse course after two days of school closures.
Students in Ontario went through various waves of disruptions during each of the three previous school years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walking the line on 'parental rights'
The education minister also carefully navigated questions from reporters on Monday about whether Ontario would follow two other provinces that have announced that, in many cases, parents will have to consent to preferred gender or pronoun changes requested by their children in schools. These moves by the governments of New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe each ignited controversy.
Lecce signalled that the requirements in Sask. and N.B. wouldn't be replicated by Ontario's government but expressed support for boards informing parents of students' preferred gender or pronoun changes.
"As an overarching value system, I really do believe that parents need to be fully aware — fully engaged — and that school boards need to be transparent with parents," he said.
Asked by a reporter what the province will require of school boards, he replied that they have policies on the issue.
"I'm just affirming to you the province's position on the matter quite clearly, which is parents have a right to know, we will respect parental rights, we think boards must do the same," Lecce said.
This expectation of boards by the education minister currently does not appear to be being met by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the province's biggest school board. The TDSB's current policy is that "a school should never disclose a student’s gender non‐conformity or transgender status to the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s)/caregiver(s) without the student’s explicit prior consent."
Advocates wary of the moves by Sask. and N.B. have warned that children requesting preferred gender or pronoun changes could be at risk from un-accepting parents, while also arguing that they may violate children's rights.
The Angus Reid Institute, a research and polling firm, released data from a survey of 3,016 adult Canadians on Monday showing no clear consensus on how children's requests for preferred gender or pronoun changes should be handled in schools.
Although just over three-quarters (78 per cent) of Canadians agreed that parents should be notified of these changes, only 43 per cent said they should be required to consent to them. About one-in-seven (14 per cent) said parents shouldn't be notified nor required to give consent, while about eight per cent didn't express an opinion. Responses given by the 746 Ontarians polled by the Angus Reid Institute were similar to the national results.
Back in class
The Ministry of Education also released on Monday a compilation of actions the government is implementing this year to "refocus school boards on the development of foundational skills," as its press release stated. This highlighted some previously announced funding, curriculum changes, supports, including specifically in math, and modified means of tracking student success.
