September 8, 2014 BC Chamber Public Affairs Update

The two sides remain far apart on a range of issues:

Wages: The Province is offering a seven-per-cent increase over six years, while the teachers are asking for eight per cent over five years and a $5,000 signing bonus to compensate them for three years without pay increases.

Class size and composition: Teachers want $175 million in the contract’s first year and $225 million in subsequent years to hire more teachers to reduce class size and help special needs students. The Province is offering a $75-million Learning Improvement Fund that would be shared between the BCTF and education workers represented by CUPE.

Court grievance fund: The BCTF also wants $100 million over five years to deal with grievances stemming from two B.C. Supreme Court rulings that found B.C. Government laws restricting the union’s bargaining rights are unconstitutional. Negotiators for the Province want to set this request aside pending an appeal of the rulings.

Premier Christy Clark has called on the teachers to suspend the strike while bargaining continues, but angered teachers and their supporters by calling teacher demands unattainable. BCTF president Jim Iker said teachers will end their strike if the Province agrees to binding arbitration and to withdrawing a contentious clause that would give the B.C. government the power to nullify the BCTF’s court wins.

The dispute has left parents searching for various forms of child care. Thousands of parents with children 12 and under have applied to the B.C. Government to receive $40 for each day of school missed. Some parents have donated the money to teachers through a website called Families Funding Teachers. Other parents and students held demonstrations outside B.C. Liberal MLA offices. Meanwhile, enrolment in the province’s private schools is up 4.5 per cent this year.

Original estimates pegged the amount of waste at 10 million cubic metres of wastewater and more than four million cubic metres of sediment spilled into Polley Lake. Imperial Metals is now saying nearly 25 million cubic metres of contaminated water and mine waste spilled into surrounding waterways. This equates to approximately 78 per cent more than original estimates.

Steve Robertson, Imperial Metals’ Vice- President of Corporate Affairs, says repeated testing has proven water in the area to be safe to drink.

Currently cleanup and restoration efforts in Quesnel Lake and Polley Lake are ongoing. Work in Hazeltine Creek, however, will require sign off by engineers before the company can proceed.

This weekly report produced for the BC Chamber of Commerce by Fleishman-Hillard.  While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information included in this publication as of the date of issue, events and government policies are subject to frequent change.  Therefore, the BC Chamber of Commerce and Fleishman-Hillard cannot assume any responsibility for actions taken solely or principally on the basis on the information contained herein.