Education billboards have STF ‘frustrated’

“Up to and including October 25, government has spent less than $150,000 on billboards,” he said.

“You compare that to the over $2 billion that we invest in education every single year. I mean it’s a small fraction of what we spend,” Cockrill added.

The minister said the government often promotes what they do across all ministries, and this is no different. He went on to say the STF also use billboards to get their message across.

“This is part of communicating to the public and reminding the public of what we put into the education sector over the last number of years and every single year,” he said.

The first set of signs that were up over the summer advertised the deal made to the STF while the current crop of billboards mentions statistics.

“What we’ve put on the table is a seven per cent increase over three years and again reminding teachers and the public that we want to continue to support the good work that their doing in the classroom and making sure that their compensated fairly for what they do each and every single day.”

According to a Fraser Institute education report from August this year, two provinces – Saskatchewan and Alberta saw a decline in “per-student spending” when adjusted for inflation while other provinces like Quebec and Nova Scotia had the largest over a near 10-year period from 2012 to 2021.

One of the new billboards, claims “2.4-billion in infrastructure since 2008” and equates to 60 schools and 30 renovations – one of which is happening at John Paul II Collegiate. While Becotte said she doesn’t know about the number of schools and renovations, the dollar amount appears to be accurate.

“Even still, like, it’s a large number, but we have record growth across this province and there are schools in many communities that are bursting at the seams,” she said.

The other sign speaks to the investments into operational funding throughout the 27 school divisions, while acknowledging the increasing classroom sizes and complexity.

“We did add $40-million to the budget in the middle of the year this last year,” Cockrill said, noting the money has funded 266 positions.

Becotte said of their own messaging that they will continue to provide the community with information, so they know what is happening province-wide.

“We’re continually falling behind. From my experience, when schools get approved to be built, it is already at the point where current schools are above capacity.”

The STF have conciliatory meetings scheduled with the government for December and they are hopeful the meetings will help to find a solution for the bargaining process.

“We do want to see solutions to challenges around class size and class complexity – ensuring that students are getting the supports that they need, and they have access to the education that essentially they have a right to,” said Becotte.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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by Julia Lovett-Squires

Education billboards have STF ‘frustrated’

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