High school teachers across the Rainy River district are hitting the picket line for a second straight week.
They are among those in nine school boards across the province taking one-day strike action to back demands for a new contract with government.
As a result, classrooms for students in grades 9 to 12 are quiet in Rainy River, Fort Frances and Atikokan.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce continue to push for mediation in the talks with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation.
“There’s a tool in the tool kit could they could be using to avoid a strike. That fact that last Wednesday they proceeded with that one day strike I thought was a responsible give that they didn’t consider the option of private mediation. Now my hope is they will,” says Lecce.
The Minister also revealed what he says is the cost of the demands put forward by OSSFT. He says it will be a $7-billion dollar hit on the system. He’s long-stated the wage request would cost $1.5 billion.
Monday he clarified that figure saying it was the cost to the entire education system.
“And my hope is this information provides greater specificity of the impacts to the taxpayer of this problem so what they’re actually asking the government and the people who pay the bills, the taxpayers of this province, to pay,” says Lecce.
The opposition claims the Education Minister trying to deflect the reasons behind the strike by placing a dollar figure on the requests from OSSTF.
NDP leader Andrea Horwath says the Minister’s made-up numbers just got bigger.
“What we’re seeing for Mr. Lecce is an obvious desperate attempt to make this about anything but Mr. Ford’s class size hikes, teacher layoffs and cuts to our children’s education,” says Horwath.
Horwath says a deal is achievable if the government withdraws those cuts.
