March 1,2012
Re.: Bill 22
Dear Parents/Guardians:
Regrettably, government has recently introduced legislation that will deeply and irrevocably undermine
the already deteriorating learning conditions in our schools. With the implementation of Bill 22, class sizes will increase, particularly in grades 4 -7, and services to children with special needs will be eroded even more than they have been over the past decade. As importantly, the new legislation will eliminate long-standing employment rights and protections for teachers province wide.
Parents must understand that teachers are taking steps to escalate job action with the greatest reservations. Similar legislation was introduced in 2002, which created the already grossly oversized classes many of your children are in, as well as which eliminated guaranteed supports for students with special needs.
Teachers have been remarkably patient, in waiting for an expensive, 9-year court challenge to run its course. In the end, the Supreme Court concluded in April of 2011 that in 2002, that legislation was illegal, as it violated teachers’ charter rights. Bill 22 has committed the very same violation.
Under Phase One, of the provincial “Teach Only” campaign, teachers have undertaken the softest possible job action legally available to us. Standing alone in opposition to government’s dissolution of public education, and seeing from the inside, the prospect of such great losses for our students, leaves us little choice, but to act against this legislation. The result of a provincial vote on whether to escalate our provincial job action will be announced by the time this letter has been received.
Teachers want parents to know that we are deeply appreciative of your patience to date. We also want parents to know that if the prospects for such a steep decline in services to our students weren’t at stake, teachers never would have taken these steps. We can only hope that government will come to understand the damage to public education that has been brought about by legislation, and will reconsider their plans to impose more of the same legislation, which will only serve to make a struggling public education system weaker.
We all want the best for our students.
Sincerely,

Mr. Reid