Classroom sizes, 'upstream, resilient economics' addressed at NDP convention

The Saskatchewan NDP is meeting for its annual convention at Plaza 88 in Prince Albert this weekend. 

Things got underway on Friday, with guest speakers from the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation and the We Matter Campaign, a group dedicated to offering support to Indigenous youth across Canada. 

Trevor McKenzie-Smith, the party's campaign director, also addressed the convention on Friday night before the party set about discussing resolutions that would be addressed on Saturday.

Party leader Ryan Meili gave his keynote address on Saturday morning before a question and answer period with MLAs. Members then attended a variety of different workshops.

A good chunk of the convention is dedicated to campaign prep. 

Meili said the party has nominated 26 candidates, roughly half of the candidates they need for the 2020 election, and more races are coming up.

"[People] are interested in a change, and they're starting to look at the NDP with a very serious eye to see if we're ready to do this, and I firmly believe that we are," Meili said.  

Classroom sizes, economics addressed in keynote speech

In his keynote address, Meili laid out a few ideas as part of the NDP platform for the 2020 election. 

Among them were a proposal to reduce classroom sizes in Kindergarten to Grade 3 to 24 children. 

"Looking at the research, there's no hard, hard perfect line, but, looking at the research, that's a good estimate of where things start to get a lot harder for teachers," Meili said. 

"When there's more than 24 small kids in a classroom, it's much harder for them to be able to give them the attention that they need."

He said part of the plan in reaching that goal is adding more teachers to classrooms and finding more teachers to create more English as a second language opportunities, as well as creating more teacher-librarian and educational assistant positions. 

Meili said he's hearing more and more teachers talk about leaving the profession because of the level of stress they deal with. 

He said part of the solution is keeping more of the teachers that are already in Saskatchewan and making sure that working conditions — like class size and composition — are meeting their needs.

In his keynote, Meili also touched on his vision for Saskatchewan's economy. He said he wants to create an "upstream, resilient economy" that invests in people.

"[That's] when we focus on making sure that we're educating people well, we're bringing everyone along in the prosperity of the economy," Meili said. "[It's] when we're also looking forward with innovation, looking for new markets, looking for new ways of doing the work that we do."

He said when done right, by investing in people the economy can withstand the tougher times better and when the economy does well, the province would be more ready to take full advantage of it.

Policy resolutions will take place Saturday afternoon after presentations by Athabasca MLA Buckley Belanger and Erwin Heuck of Distributed Energy and Solar.

On Sunday, Alberta NDP MLA David Eggen and Unifor Local 1.S president Dave Kuntz will address the convention. Their presentations will be followed by elections for the party's treasurer, vice-presidents and members-at-large.