Striking B.C. teachers and the provincial government have scheduled their first bargaining session since the end of the school year.
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation and B.C. Public School Employers’ Association released a joint statement Friday confirming they plan to meet late next week, less than a month before the fall semester is scheduled to begin.
“BCTF and BCPSEA agreed to meet on August 8 in order to seek a way forward for resolving the current bargaining dispute before the start of the new school year,” it read.
The announcement came one day after the province offered to pay $40 a day to parents of children under 13 if the strike continues into September.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong said about 300,000 students would be eligible for the subsidy, which would be paid out of the roughly $12 million the province would save daily in teachers’ salaries.
The offer received a mixed response from the public, with some happy for the help and others outraged B.C. doesn’t plan to put its strike savings back into education.
With files from The Canadian Press
