VANCOUVER - The British Columbia government said on Sunday it expects to be helping parents pay the costs of daycare because the first day of school appears to be delayed indefinitely by an ongoing teachers' strike.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender said parents who start registering at the government's website can expect to receive $40 a day as early as late September or early October, although the Education Ministry subsequently said the payments will come after the strike is over.
"The registration process went live," the minister said. "People are already registering for that $40."
Many parents were concerned daycare bills would become a problem if school did not start on time and in July, the government proposed to give cash to parents with children aged 12 and under if that was the case.
However, Jim Iker of the BC Teachers' Federation has been critical of the move, calling it an unhelpful bribe.
Fassbender defended the program on Sunday, saying the payments are in parents' best interest.
"We just simply have the right as government, when there are savings that accrue from a strike, to apply those in any way that we think is in the benefit of the people of British Columbia," said Fassbender. "We have absolutely every opportunity and right to do that."
Fassbender's announcement comes after teachers and their employers met for three days in an attempt to strike a deal that would end — or at least suspend — an ongoing teachers strike that is threatening to derail the start of school on Tuesday.
But hopes that school would start on time are gone now that the veteran mediator who organized the talks walked from the latest bargaining session, declaring both sides were too far apart.
Despite the collapse of bargaining, Fassbender reaffirmed his promise to not legislate teachers back to work, which is making it even less clear if and when school will start.
"Legislation has led to litigation, has led to court cases. We have got to stop doing it that way," he said. "We are not going to legislate."
Fassbender said teachers and employers are more than $300 million apart.
Both sides have said they are willing to bargain throughout the long weekend in hopes of striking a deal, but Iker and Peter Cameron, the government's negotiator, have said school will likely not start on time.
Iker has said even if the dispute was settled, preparation time before classes begins will need to be discussed.
Veteran mediator Vince Ready was behind the three days of talks between both sides and is lauded as a mediator capable of resolving the toughest labour disputes.
Despite Ready's declaration of an impasse, teachers and employers have both said they will be keeping in touch with him, and said Ready will contact them again once he believes a deal can be reached.
Before the latest round of talks with Ready, Iker and Cameron met with Fassbender, who asked both sides to drop the most contentious issues and start mediation.
These issues are teachers' grievances, which are related to a ongoing battle in court between the union and government.
The B.C. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year the province had violated the union's rights by stripping teachers of their ability to bargain for class size and support in 2002, but the government has launched an appeal of that decision.
The ruling prompted teachers to ask the government to set aside $225 million every five years to deal with grievances stemming from the court case, but Fassbender's proposal would have put negotiations regarding those problems on hold.
Iker has said he is unwilling to back away from dealing with those issues, but after talks collapsed on Saturday, he said teachers were willing to reduce the grievance fund to $100 million.
During the summer, bargaining for the key issues — pay, class size and support staff levels — has been moving at a glacial pace.
The province's 40,000 teachers went on strike two weeks before summer vacation, booting all half a million of B.C.'s public school students out of class.
