Meanwhile other provincial business is ongoing as this continues to roll out
Ontario's public elementary school teachers set to begin rotating strikes
on Monday, this as the high school students will hold another teachers
rather will hold another walkout on Tuesday so what did Ford or did he say
anything about the ongoing dispute? He was asked about that when he did take
some questions from reporters and he talked about how he is frustrated that
he's been talking to parents who say that they're frustrated with the ongoing
labor unrest in the education sector, he blamed the unions for this john saying
they are holding parents hostage he praised his Education Minister Stephen
Lecce saying he's doing a good job of handling this file, that he's confident
in his minister but he also said he's confident that a deal will be reached
with the various unions let's listen to what else the premier said about this
issue. We want to negotiate a fair deal a fair deal that will keep the students in
the class not hurt the students by walking out, not hurting parents by
walking out not hurting the economy, that probably cost hundreds of millions of
dollars talking to business owners when when their employees don't show up
because the teachers would rather go on on strike for a day. We're confident
that we're gonna get a deal. And he said what we've heard from the Education
Minister, as well that the government has made concessions in their view and it's
now up to the Union to budge on some of the sticking points in order to get to
get back to the negotiating table and to reach a deal. He was also asked if the
government would be willing to legislate teachers back to work if they do
escalate to a full-blown ongoing strike throughout the province the premier not
directly answering that just saying that he's hopeful deals will be reached
before the legislature reconvenes, they're still on their winter break they're not
sitting right now but they are due to come back in February but again the
premier saying he thinks teachers do a great job in this province but that he
thinks they are fairly compensated, salaries is one of the issues that's on
the table not the only one class size
mandated elearning are some of the other issues that the two sides are still
quite far apart on John. Thanks for this Megan,
CBC's Meghan Fitzpatrick live in Toronto.
We're doing everything we can we want to negotiate a fair deal, a fair deal that
will keep the students in the class not hurt the students by walking out not
hurting parents by walking out not hurting the economy that probably cost
hundreds of millions of dollars talking to business owners when when their
employees don't show up because the teachers would rather go on one strike
for a day. We're confident that we're gonna get a deal, we got to deal with
three other unions and we sit back Robin and ask ourselves if it's good enough for
QP and the other unions and all the other o-p-s staff that work in the
province, why isn't it good enough for the head of the unions and I always
differentiate between the teachers and their union heads.
I support the hard-working men and women that teach our children every single day, I
think they're they don't have good leadership ahead of the unions they just
they want to argue no matter what premier no matter what government is in
power and they they have to understand because of the last 15 years of
mismanagement scandal and waste, we're in this position but hopefully they're
gonna take the 1 percent deal we've come out with concessions, I want to thank
Minister Lecce for doing incredible job absolutely incredible just going out
about and talking to talking to parents they're frustrated they're frustrated
that the teachers can't stay in the classroom
and negotiate at the same time, so we're confident we'll we'll get a deal and and
things will be back to normal hopefully sooner than later.
No no we're you know something we can't have rules for the heads of
the unions that represent the teachers and rules for everyone else in the
province, and again we're gonna do everything we can to make sure that the
students have a safe environment to go to school, the parents don't have the
pressure the uncertainty and one parent I saw yesterday said you know the
teachers are holding holding us hostage and that's now you let me repeat that
the union's head of the unions are holding the parents hostage, not the
teachers. Well we're going back to legislature I believe it's February 18th
and we plan on going back there and and hopefully we can get a deal done by then
and I believe in treating our teachers fairly I think they've been treated very
fairly not now not only now but over the years, they're being compensated fairly
they do a great job they work hard but they're the second highest paid teachers
in the country and I'm I'm fine with
that, but stay in the classroom and so that's
what we want to focus on making sure that the kids are in the classroom.