Students may be out of school all week as teacher bill is debated

Call it a lesson in democracy.

How long school-aged children will remain barred from the classroom depends almost entirely on how long it takes to turn a bill into law.

On Monday morning Education Minister Karen Casey will table proposed legislation to impose a contract on the province's 9,300 teachers. Until then, teachers are expected to report to work and parents must find other arrangements for students.

There's likely to be intense interest in the process when provincial politicians return to Province House for the emergency sitting that was also announced Saturday morning.

The legislation will likely be called Bill 75, and like controversial wage package Bill 148, it will generate plenty of anger and resentment. Using the time it took to pass Bill 148 as a guide, the process could keep kids out of school most, if not all of next week.

Imposing new contract 

Last December, the Public Services Sustainability Act was pushed through the Nova Scotia legislature after round-the-clock sittings.

It also triggered night and day demonstrations outside Province House by union members and their supporters upset that the act could impose wages on the 75,000 public employees in Nova Scotia.

Although it passed, the act has yet to be brought into force.

Now rather than use the power it has at its disposal through that act, the McNeil government, in the name of safety, has decided to impose a new contract on teachers in a new law.

It is doing so rather than waiting to see the actual effects of a work-to-rule campaign, set to launch Monday morning. 

Concerns about supervision 

Armed with dire warnings from school board superintendents from across the province, the government announced Saturday it had decided to close schools for as long as it takes to pass their proposed solution to the contract impasse.

Sandra MacKenzie, deputy minister of education, asked for feedback on what work-to-rule would mean in schools. The province released written responses from those high-ranking officials that paint a bleak picture of teachers working to rule.

They say unsupervised classrooms and not having lunch monitors or principals overseeing the arrival and departure of students is reason enough to shut schools down. 

At the Chignecto Central Regional School Board, the superintendent said: "We simply cannot operate a school with the degree of safety required in situations where there is no teacher in charge due to principal absence."

'Left alone on the playground'  

During her news briefing Saturday morning, Casey said she wouldn't speculate when asked about specific safety concerns.

"When you speculate, it's not a nice picture," she said.  

She did paint a scenario of how a primary-aged student might be affected.

"Parents were to come and pick them up. Parents weren't there in the 20 minutes. The student is left alone on the playground. That's unacceptable and we're not prepared to have students put at risk in that way."

Committee open to public input

Both opposition parties have agreed to do whatever it takes to delay passage of the bill.

By introducing the proposed law on Monday, politicians will be able to start debating it on Tuesday. Then it will be up to the 16 members who belong to the Progressive Conservative Party and the NDP, as well as the single independent, to keep the debate going as long as they are entitled.

It's likely that debate will stretch around-the-clock. Liberal House Leader Michel Samson has the power to set the sitting hours and has, in the past, ended one day at midnight only to start the next day's proceedings one minute later.

Teachers, union activists and anyone else interested in the bill will have a chance to have their say during the Law Amendments committee hearings, which would start after the bill passes second reading.

Around-the-clock debate

Those hearings may not happen until Wednesday or Thursday, and the committee could sit for extra long hours over several days. 

In the past, governments have been loath to put a time limit on that committee's work but that could happen in this case because of the pressure to get kids back in the classroom.

Imposing a contract on the union would take away teachers's right to strike or take other job action since those measures are specifically outlawed once a valid contract is in place. But it would in no way settle the issue.

Although the province's chief negotiator Rollie King said the government is confident it could weather a legal challenge, it's likely the union would be eager to test that confidence in court.

A recent landmark victory by British Columbia teachers at the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of teachers.

• Political opposition vows to fight 'bullying tactics' of forcing contract on union