Premier and Education Minister Respond to Court Ruling
Prince George, B.C. – Premier Christy Clark says today’s ruling by the B.C. Court of Appeal is an “opportunity” to put the past behind and aspire to improve education in the province.
“We are very pleased with the outcome of the decision. It was a very clear and unambiguous decision.”
The B.C. Court of Appeal delivered a 118 page decision that concluded the Province was within its right to remove class size and composition from the collective agreement with teachers.
The Premier says the decision presents a new opportunity “This result from the Court combined with the opportunity presented by that historic 6 year (collective) agreement, is a chance for us to put the disputes behind us, and its a chance for us to focus on doing what’s really best for kids and for students by working together. For way too long, decisions in education have been principally determined by fights between adults. My view has always been the education system will be better for teachers, for students and for citizens, if we can find a way to put disputes of adults behind us.”
“Today, what I think what we have is an unique opportunity, a unique opportunity that’s been presented by this court decision and backed up by five years of labour peace because we worked so hard to get that negotiated agreement with teachers and the question for us all, is, what will we do with that opportunity? I think we should take this opportunity to put disputes behind us and work together, work together and aspire for the best education system anywhere in the world, aspire for even better results for kids in the classroom because if we aspire on their behalf, we will make a better future for all of us.”
She called on teachers to work with the Province, to seize the opportunity to ” build that future, aspire to greatness , leave the disputes of the past behind us.”
Education Minister Peter Fassbander says the message has always been to work in the best interests of the students and teachers, and the Province is committed to doing that “today is another step where we can pay down the gauntlet to each other and say, we are going to focus on student outcomes, we’re going to focus on the future of education, we’re going to build on a system that is great and has the ability to move forward in a very fast moving world . We have an opportunity to move forward in a collaborative way to find those unique opportunities for education in the future.”
Comments
More proof that CC PF and the liberal government are doing what is best for the province as a whole and will not accept a sweetheart deal the dippers made with the tf that could cost up to half a billion a year.
Got my pen warmed up and ready to vote for another term for Christy and the excellent leadership she has shown. On the flip side Jimmy P should assign Glen Clark to the local Save-On bagging groceries and rounding up carts in the parking lot for a few months!
Sparrow.. Please vote for her if you love long waiting lists for medical care.. Selling out by to foreign ownership. Destroying our environment and education.. My vote for a pile of dog poo will cancel yours.. And the dog poo doesn’t smell as bad as the ruling party…
it would be nice to see a viable 3rd party. As much as this govn’t calls themselves the “BC Liberals”, they couldn’t be more of a right wing party. Then we have the extreme left with the NDP. What happened to a middle ground choice?
CNC doing cuts to keep a long excellent program going and crusty tossing another 30 million for native only training.. Now that’s leadership…of racism
P Val
Canada weathered the economic downturn better than most other countries and BC did about the best of the provinces. Thank doG that Campbell had time to right the ship and plug the leaks that the dippers left. CC has continued on that path giving the province a diversified and resilient economy while not caving to every little whim and fancy of the public sector unions.
Greens will bleed enough votes from dippers to make another CC term a cakewalk. Horgan(the invisible man) need not come out from wherever he has been hiding since being crowned #1 dipper:P
It seems very easy for governments to keep cutting back in education on all levels, without paying the political price. However when it gets to a point like in Baltimore, where you have a large population with low education and live in poverty the fabric of society is gone and very hard to repair.
Don’t think Baltimore has anything to do with education funding but go ahead and daydream
f-150
Can you please show me where the government has cut back on education? I have read the budget documents which show increases of $576,000,000 in the next 3 years, all while enrollment is falling. Please explain the cuts that you refer to.
P Val – maybe if these ‘natives’ had been encouraged to stay in school we wouldn’t need to be putting out 30 million now?
cougs79
When special needs student were integrated into classrooms, schools recieved $25 000.00 – 30 000.00 (from government) per student depending on the severity of needs. Enough cash to provide a full time educational assistant.
Now, maximum funding is 15 000.00 (from government) for children with severe needs (dependant on someone for their care). Enough to pay for about 2.5 hrs, 5 days a week assistance. Students with less severe needs receive much less or nothing at all.
Want to hazard a guess as to where the money comes to fund full time assistance?
Our economy is diversified… Good to know.. Besides forestry and mining that we have always had what do we have now on top of that ? Unless you consider selling off BC to foreign interests good for our economy. Lng hasn’t gotten off the ground..
Yes diversified as in levelling the playing field so the film and tv production industries are now going gangbusters
Firms like Hootsuite that have a global footprint head quartered in BC. Large presence in the province by companies like Microsoft, Google, and video game production companies. Amazon soon to have a big presence in the lower mainland.
British Columbia is a world leader in CGI for movies and had a large part in most of the recent mega hit flicks.
Biomed production is alive and well in BC and was a frontrunner in finding medications for recent ebola crisis.
Those are just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are plenty more examples. Oil and gas have helped the Peace region and in time LNG will help the central part of the province including PG.
Get out of the house or at least open your eyes once in a while P Val might see something other than a steady steam of doom and gloom(woe is me and the ndp:)!
BC’s has been top in cgi before your queen crusty was on her throne.. The liberals devastated the be film industry and the only reason there is an increase is the low Canadian dollar.. Nice of you to try to make it like the liberals brought in these companies..lol. Take off your liberal glasses and give reality a check..
‘…give reality a check.’ Hey P Val, here’s some reality for you. You lost the election. Get over it, or do something about it. Your opinions are not shared by the majority of people in northern BC, period.
Vor so what. I voice my opinion..just like everyone else. Lol..suck it up buttercup 8)
Quit spreading gossip and check your facts Iwonder – max funding for special needs is 36,600 and do they have a full time educational assistant? Maybe ask where they are spending that money? Next year it will be 37,700, put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Plus the rate for full time equivalent student will go from 6,900 to 7,158
https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/k12funding/funding/14-15/overview.pdf
https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/k12funding/funding/15-16/overview.pdf
Here is my opinion, maybe Iker should get off his can and actually work with the school districts and government to improve classroom situations like he was asked on CBC radio and not just turn every conversation into funding shortfalls.
iwonder
Wrong answer!
It’s funny how the previous court decision was not an opportunity but rather was something to ignore until it could be overturned but now that a court has ruled in the government’s favour we are expected to sing Kumbaya and get with the new programme rather than waiting for the appeal.
The decision was also 4-1, not as clear and decisive as the government makes out.
Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2015 @ 6:21 PM by P Val
“BC’s has been top in cgi before your queen crusty was on her throne. The liberals devastated the be film industry and the only reason there is an increase is the low Canadian dollar”
When you blow smoke you really go all out. Has to do with tax incentives by the Liberal government that brought them here, remove the incentive and they will slowly move elsewhere low dollar or no low dollar. Just take a peek at New Brunswick.
Pray tell what CGI production facility was in Vancouver before 2001 when the Liberals took power? Sony Pictures Imageworks just announced last year they were moving their entire production studio to Vancouver, their temporary office ran up to 350 employees. Other studios like George Lucas’s Industry Light and Magic is working on the new Star Wars film in Vancouver after relocating starting in 2012. Pixar came in 2010 and went in 2013 but there are lots of studios opening offices in Vancouver. Nitrogen Studios opened in 2003 and they are hiring for the new Seth Rogan film if you want to get into the scene. The list goes on
4-1 not clear and decisive? Huh? If a party won an election with 80% of the vote it would be considered a landslide. Don’t think a hockey game goes into overtime if the score is 4-1 at the end of the third. It is also not a given that the SCoC will even accept the appeal when the bctf applies- they only took 10% of cases from BC last year
From what I read so far from the majority opinion there are clear grounds for overturning Griffin’s rulings. As the full ruling is some 180 pages it will be a day or so before I get to the sole dissenting opinion- can only take so much legalese at one sitting.
@slinky
You will have to forgive poor P Val, he has had a dark cloud over his head and a permanent pout on since Christy soundly kicked Dix’s butt in the last election, him blowing a 28 point lead in a couple of weeks still makes me chuckle. Will most likely find P Val in a rubber room without his belt or shoelaces when she wins a second term.
Lots of backlash towards each other. Ben must be turning in his grave itching to clean the posts up.
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