VANCOUVER - British Columbia's premier is heralding a tentative agreement with public school teachers as a historic deal that will grant the province the longest term of education labour peace in 30 years.
Christy Clark says if teachers ratify the six-year contract on Thursday, it will be a game-changer in the long-standing dysfunctional relationship and allow children to start their delayed school year as early as Monday.
The premier provided few specifics, but says teachers will get a raise, more funding to deal with classroom composition and money to settle outstanding union grievances.
Clark says the government will continue its appeal of a court case where a judge has already twice ruled that the removal of the union's right to bargain class size and composition was illegal.
B.C. Teachers' Federation president Jim Iker is to address media later this afternoon, but a member of the union's bargaining team says the contentious E80 clause, involving class size and composition, was removed from the contract before a settlement was reached.
A vote will be held Thursday for more than 40,000 teachers who launched the full-scale work stoppage two weeks before the end of the last school year, cancelled summer school and delayed the school year for three weeks.
