Home »
Déjà vu budget a challenge for SD5
Last month Minister of Education Peter Fassbender announced to B.C. school boards that they must develop a savings plan in accordance with the Cooperative Gains Mandate in order to fund a Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) wage increase – a move School District No. 5 (SD5) Board Chair Frank Lento describes as “a bad case of déjà vu.”
Under the Cooperative Gains Mandate public sector employers were offered the ability to negotiate modest wage increases as long as those increases could be found within existing budgets, service delivery levels are maintained, and costs are not passed on to the public.
According to Lento, this is the same request made to school boards – and then retracted — in the 2012/13 school year by previous Minister of Education Don McRae.
“You have indicated to me quite clearly that in light of budget uncertainties and the timing of district budget processes that the savings cannot be generated without either reducing service levels or transferring costs to the public,” said McRae in a January 23, 2013 letter sent to all school boards.
“Our board has stated quite clearly that we support raises for all of our employees, including CUPE. We still do,” says Lento. “But for the minister to say that boards should have anticipated the additional costs and developed savings plans in accordance with the co-operative gains mandate in order to pay for this increase is offensive.”
According to Lento, unlike other public sectors covered by the cooperative gains mandate districts aren’t even at the table negotiating with CUPE, government is.
“Government negotiated a fair wage increase to CUPE but at a cost to school boards that they’re unwilling to fund. Government is certainly aware that our financial situation hasn’t improved since last January given that boards are bankrolled by government.”
Every year the board receives modest funding increases from government but according to Lento these increases are never enough to cover even simple cost of living increases.
“Inflation alone produces cost increases to the district of over one million dollars year over year. In addition to inflation the district has to pay for carbon offsets, MSP premium increases, BC Hydro rate increases…the list goes on.”
Fassbender says other B.C. school districts are finding the cash to pay for these raises but Lento suspects they’re dipping into anticipated savings for their upcoming 2013/14 budget cycle, the same as SD5 is doing.
“Every year our board looks for projected cost savings that we can apply to our next budget cycle. It’s like a household budget; replace your furnace and see savings in your hydro bill. Pay off a car loan and you have more money for your child’s college tuition.”
Lento says the bottom line is that there’s simply no way districts can find enough in savings without compromising educational services.
“Yes, we one hundred percent support a raise for our employees. Yes, districts are coming up with the money because we have no choice. But at the end of the day that money affects our bottom line: the classroom. It’s simple math. You can’t take nine away from eight without borrowing from the tens column,” he said.
SD5
