TORONTO — Ontario's education minister says she wants to release details of teachers' contracts "as soon as possible."
Liz Sandals has answered questions about $3.74 million in payments to cover negotiating costs for several unions by promising to release the agreements once all are finalized.
As of late last week, central deals had been ratified by all education-sector unions, and Sandals said today she is looking at how to release those details without disrupting ongoing local negotiations.
This round of bargaining was the first in which local and central deals were negotiated separately and the Liberal government has defended the payments as necessary because the transition to a new system made the process quite lengthy.
But Sandals said no other union received payments other than those already reported through the media.
The Liberals paid $2.5 million this year to the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association and the French teachers' union. In 2008 and 2012 a total of $1.24 million was paid to OSSTF, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents support workers, and the French teachers' union.
