On Jan. 30, Minister of Education Don McRae wrote a letter pitching the B.C. Liberals' plan for a "decade of labour peace" between teachers and the province.
Readers might be interested to learn this plan for "peace" would force teachers to serve strike notice if we are not able to negotiate an agreement by the middle of the summer.
Then, the plan would cancel the beginning of the school year, essentially locking us out. In one fell swoop, the plan manages to turn a strike into a lockout.
While I agree with the honourable minister that labour peace between teachers and the province would be good for students, this plan is not an olive branch likely to achieve such peace.
A piece of advice for McRae: good faith negotiations on the part of the government's negotiating agent would be a genuine gesture of peace.
Clay McLeod,
Kelowna