A landmark ruling that puts class size and composition back into teacher bargaining has been hailed as a victory by the president of the Coquitlam Teachers' Association.
In a statement, Ken Christensen said the CTA is "overjoyed" at the Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the teachers' class size and composition case, dating back to 2002, "when the government stripped protections for class size and composition out of our collective agreement.
"We await more details on the ruling in the coming days and weeks. This is a victory for every teacher, past and present that has lived through this period and for every parent that has had children in schools in the last 13 years."
The case dates back to legislation that stripped class size, class composition and specialist teacher provisions from the teachers' contract and a law that prevented the issues from being bargained in the future.
The Supreme Court's written ruling was not expected to be available until Friday,, but BC Teachers' Federation president Glen Hansman is reported as saying the effect will restore class size and composition to pre-2002 levels and could cost between $250 and $300 million a year.
However, the province maintains that the restoration of the class size and composition language in the collective agreement does not mean teachers will immediately be put back into the classroom but the current collective agreement does allow for the issue to be discussed.
The language was put into the collective agreement in anticipation of this outcome, a finance ministry spokesperson said on background, and while there are no immediate financial implications from the Supreme Court ruling, a $100 million learning improvement fund is in place to help with these issues.
"We really need to sit down and talk with parties on how move forward and what it looks like," said a representative from the Public Sector Employer's Council in a conference call with reporters.
When the Supreme Court of Canada agreed in January to hear the appeal, Education Minister Mike Bernier said at the time it wouldn't disrupt the school system because of the five-year settlement negotiated with the BCTF in 2014 after a long and bitter strike.
Thursday's ruling came less than half an hour after the nine judges of the Supreme Court of Canada heard from union and government lawyers in Ottawa and was based on the decision of a dissenting judge, Ian Donald, in the April 2015 appeal.
The ruling is not retroactive and no damages were awarded.
A summary of the case is available here.
— With files from BC Local News
