Coal Bowl in jeopardy due to teachers and province contract dispute
Decision will have to be made by middle of January, says founder Lowell Cormier
A decades-old basketball tournament in Cape Breton may end up as collateral damage as a result of the contract dispute between the teachers and the province.
The Coal Bowl, which started in 1982, attracts high school teams from all over the country to New Waterford's Breton Education Centre for a week every February.
"It's in limbo," said Lowell Cormier, one of the founding members of the tournament.
He said if the work-to rule strike action stays in place, the tournament won't happen.
"It's a tough situation," said Cormier. "The Coal Bowl is a community-school based project."
Overnighting at school
He said what makes the tournament unique is that the students from the at least dozen teams stay in the school for the week. Also, it's a big event for people in the area.
"It's a major community winter carnival and there's a large number of community volunteers," said Cormier. "Having said that, there's also a significant number of school volunteers, many of whom are teachers."
The tournament is set to begin Feb. 6. Cormier said they'll make that decision by the middle of January.
"We have to make a decision in the very near future on whether we plan for the remainder of the tournament and let teams know," said Cormier.
Hopeful about resolution
He's hopeful that the teachers and the province are returning to the bargaining table. A former teacher himself, he said he hopes it works out for everyone.
"The perspective of extra-curricular activities and sport is very dear to my heart because I coached for so long," said Cormier.
"But sometimes these things are unavoidable. And hopefully they'll come to a decision by negotiating and hopefully we'll have Coal Bowl."