Mandryk: Sask. government pays for dismissing classroom complexity

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To suggest the Saskatchewan Arbitration Board’s recent ruling on classroom complexity is historic — as the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) has — needs to be put into context.

Yes, it’s historic in Saskatchewan. And it would be similarly historic in Alberta — the only other province without classroom complexity language in its public teachers’ contract.

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But it’s been nearly a decade since the November 2016 landmark 7-2 decision by Canada’s Supreme Court in favour of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation. The BCTF had constitutionally challenged a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling on classroom complexity.

In other words, even before all the Saskatchewan Party government nonsense that classroom complexity somehow couldn’t or shouldn’t be part of the teachers’ contract, there was already legal precedent. (One can only guess whether this might have been why government was so reluctant to take the issue to the quasi-judicial arbitration process earlier, knowing full well that an arbitrator was likely to rule in the teachers’ favour.)

So the maddening aspect for Saskatchewan teachers is they had to fight tooth and claw for something that not only benefits kids and is now commonplace elsewhere, but also for something that would appear they were legally entitled to have.

Teachers were remarkably gracious this week after finally winning a protracted fight that should have been a given.

“This is a hard-won first step to ensure these critical issues will be addressed,” STF president Samantha Becotte said in a prepared statement. “This decision is a decade in the making and will have a significant impact on students, teachers and the future of public education in Saskatchewan.”

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The STF noted there will be a “class complexity fund of $20 million per year … in addition to all other provincial funding” and that it “includes provisions to hire additional teachers.”

This was a big loss for the Sask. Party government — arguably, a bigger loss than the arbitrator-awarded salary ruling of nine per cent over three years, including a four per cent increase retroactive to Sept. 1, 2023, a three per cent increase retroactive to Sept. 1, 2024 and a two per cent increase this coming Sept. 1.

To the Sask. Party government’s credit, this wage increase is in line with what it eventually offered … notwithstanding government’s earlier attempts to plaster the province with billboards falsely portraying teachers as overpaid by Western Canadian standards.

It was just a small part of the unnecessary damage that occurred in this fight.

It’s a puzzler why the Sask. Party thought it was a good idea to squander any goodwill it might have had with such outrageous claims and all the union/teaching bashing we saw from former education minister Jeremy Cockrill. It surely didn’t help the party in its bedrock rural seats and likely cost Sask. Party candidates in the city seats.

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Sometimes, a political party does get caught up in the times and its own branding.

Rather than accepting that classroom complexity was an umbrella term for real-world classroom problems like special needs students, newer Canadian students struggling with English or even the simple reality that many city classrooms have too many students, it very much seemed as if the government tried to spin this as a sort of “woke” notion in education that voters should simply dismiss.

Unfortunately, now the government finds itself in the unenviable position of having to pay back wages to the teachers and whatever added costs will be associated with addressing classroom complexity. All this comes at a time when the provincial budget — coming in less than two weeks — is potentially being hammered by this trade war.

It’s no small irony that Saskatchewan and Alberta — two of three Canadian “have” provinces with the financial wherewithal to address costs associated with a growing province — have been the last to adopt the concept.

This issue here has always been more about politics.

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Sure, adopting the concept of classroom complexity may be historic here. Most everywhere else, it’s now history. And we will now have to pay to catch up.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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