McGuinty made the statement at the Ontario Liberal Party council meeting after he was asked by reporters if there is a deal between the Catholic elementary teachers and the province.
Sources say the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Assocation is very close to signing an agreement with the province. Such a move would break ranks with the other teaching unions who have refused to negotiate with Ontario after they were told their wages would be frozen.
“We are working very hard, discussions are underway and I feel very optimistic about those discussions,” McGuinty said on Saturday.
“We owe it to ourselves to demonstrate to Ontarians that we acknowledge our fiscal challenges, we are determined to protect the quality of the classroom experience for all our kids and we can get this done ourselves.”
News of a possible deal comes just a day after the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario released the results of a province-wide vote of its members, who overwhelmingly approved a day of protest in the fall should the Liberal government legislate a wage freeze and cuts to their benefits.
The province is working as “hard as it can” to secure an agreement as soon as it can so “there is a sense of stability for September.”
On Sept. 1, teaching unions are in a legal strike position.
Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod voiced concern over the government negotiating a secret deal with one group, a move she said they have tried before.
“The Liberals need to come clean if they’ve made a secret deal with one of the unions. The public has a right to know what the terms are, especially in light of the precarious state the McGuinty government has placed us in,” she said.
Ontario is battling a $15-billion deficit and has just emerged from a week of budget drama that almost delved the province into a summer election.
The Liberals want all public-sector workers to take a pay freeze, just like the MPPs have for five years.
The province is already at loggerheads with its doctors. Contract talks with the Ontario Medical Association are at a standstill. Last month, the Liberal government slashed several hundred fees paid for services to save $338.3 million this year.
ETFO president Sam Hammond has said a wage freeze would interfere with the collective bargaining process, and that a labour protest — on a school day — is just one of many strategies the union is planning.
However, union sources told the Star that if the Catholic teachers do reach a tentative agreement with the province, it would put tremendous pressure on the other teacher unions, representing elementary, secondary and French teachers, to return to provincial talks.
Education Minister Laurel Broten refused to comment, saying she will announce a deal only if she has one.
Outside the Liberal party summit at Laurentian University, hundreds of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission employees rallied.
They fear nearly 500 jobs will be lost at ONTC due to the province divesting the Crown agency, which provides bus and rail services to all parts of the north.
However, McGuinty promised to maintain all ONTC bus routes running. He’ll also keep the Polar Bear Express train to Moosonee in service.
“We just can’t afford to subsidize the ONTC in the way we have in years past,” he said. “We are at a point in our economic history where we have to make some difficult decisions.”
NDP MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked the premier to show respect for the ONTC workers by going outside to meet with them.
“When people from northern Ontario get up at 4 a.m. to hop on a bus so they can be where you are, after repeatedly asking to meet the premier . . . it seems to me like basic courtesy would be to meet the leadership,” she said.
The workers have ideas to increase ridership, make it more profitable and benefit the Ring of Fire mining development in Ontario’s far north, said Gélinas.
Brian Kelly, an ONTC employee from North Bay, said they have tried to meet with McGuinty for three months.
“He’s been ignoring those requests,” Kelly said. “The fact of the matter is, the ONTC is a valuable service linking all the communities and it has been in existence for 110 years. It has helped open up the north from North Bay to the James Bay coast.”
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Tanya Talaga
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