Back to school is imminent for Ontario students, but important elements of exactly how that will look during the COVID-19 pandemic remain up in the air.
Many questions remain about the province’s $309 million plan to reopen K-12 schools this fall, with new protocols to be implemented and scores of new staff including teachers, school nurses and custodians who need to be brought on board, trained and deployed.
One notable part of the plan is a $50-million commitment to hire up to 500 school-focused public health nurses. But midway into August, that process is still in the “call-out” stage, Premier Doug Ford admitted on Wednesday.
“We have a call-out right now for nurses. We want to make sure we fulfil the 500 positions without draining from the system,” Ford said during his daily news conference.
“Let’s get them in the classrooms as soon as possible — even if it takes a couple extra weeks … as long as the 500 nurses are coming.”
Details around school nurses still to be ironed out
Details about who is hiring these nurses and where they will be embedded need ironing out, according to Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.
Grinspun, who is among those consulting the province about this part of the plan, welcomes the initiative as a whole, calling the new hires a public health necessity for schools given the complex health concerns that are facing students and teachers going forward.
A Japanese student has his temperature taken by a school nurse in June. Beyond helping with COVID-19 concerns, experts say public health nurses hired in Ontario schools can also address issues such as bullying, addiction, anxiety and depression. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
“We need to be prepared for an outbreak in a school. We need to be prepared for preventing an outbreak,” she said.
These nurses, who Grinspun notes would ideally be registered nurses with baccalaureate degrees, would have the expertise to tackle a wide range of issues.
Not only would they adapt to potentially changing COVID-19 conditions this fall and winter, as well as liaise with local public health authorities, but would also tackle flu season and address concerns such as bullying, addiction, anxiety and depression — conditions that may already be exacerbated by the pandemic, Grinspun added.
“This is not only about donning and doffing [masks] … This is about much more than that,” she said. “Solving problems [on an ongoing basis], in the context of reopening of schools, it’s not simple at all.”
Tying this new wave of school nurses to local public health units across the province is also vital, Grinspun said, “to fit the teams on those units and … blend with the rest of the programs” already underway for specific communities.
Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, believes the nurses are a public health necessity for schools, given the complex health concerns facing students and teachers. (Amy Dodge/CBC)
Custodial staffing levels an ongoing issue, unions say
Another major component of Ontario’s plan is $75 million for hiring more than 900 additional custodians and buying cleaning supplies.
But it doesn’t go far enough, according to Laura Walton, president of Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), which represents 55,000 education workers including custodians and cleaning staff.
“Nine-hundred custodians seems like a lot of people. But you’re talking about 4,800 [public elementary and secondary] schools across the province,” she said.
A custodian cleans a classroom in Brubaker Elementary School in Des Moines, Iowa. Not having enough staff to clean and maintain Ontario public schools was an issue even before COVID-19, according to the Ontario School Board Council of Unions. (Charlie Neibergall/The Associated Press)
“That’s not enough for the amount of cleaning that we need to do for our students,” Walton said, adding that the issue of too few staffers to clean and maintain Ontario public schools has been a perennial issue and was raised during contract negotiations last year.
Walton said she has heard from OSBCU locals about custodial job postings going up in various regions.
She also predicts that, as a first measure, school boards likely will tap their existing casual supply lists to offer those workers permanent employment.
“These are decent paying jobs and so hopefully we will have folks come forward interested,” she said. “There is going to be a lot of work.”
Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, predicts boards will offer permanent employment to custodial staff already on casual supply lists. (CBC)
‘Trying to put a puzzle together’
Boards have been working on reopening scenarios for months.
“We’ve been at this since really, the beginning of May,” noted Peter Sovran, associate director of learning services for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) and chair of its back-to-school planning group.
His team has been planning how to reopen following the latest pandemic guidelines as well as the board’s standard budget allocation from the province.
Sovran says they’ve been guided by a number of key principles, including student and staff safety, minimizing disruption to regular school routines and flexibility between conventional, adaptive or remote learning if COVID conditions change quickly.
WATCH l Epidemiologist answers questions about heading back to school:
Dr. Christopher Labos says there is little value in testing every child for the coronavirus before school starts and he speaks to concerns about keeping kids apart in the classroom. 5:43
They’ve also looked at the financial support needed for scenarios such as reducing class sizes.
Since the province announced its decision to keep elementary class sizes at pre-COVID levels, various health officials, parents and educators have reiterated the call for a drastic reduction to facilitate in-class physical distancing.
However, with just weeks to go before school starts, a major reduction to class sizes across HWDSB elementary schools alone would be a complex endeavour, Sovran explained.
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board associate director Peter Sovran likened the school reopening process to trying to put together a puzzle with missing pieces. (Derek Hooper/CBC)
According to an updated HWDSB report released Monday, 15-student classes would require about 900 additional teachers at the cost of approximately $76 million. The province has thus far pledged $30 million for the hiring of additional teachers across all of Ontario.
Funding for new teachers aside, Sovran said other logistical considerations if class sizes were reduced include identifying additional classroom spaces, implementing health and safety requirements for those locations and putting necessary resources into them, as well as figuring out which students will be reassigned to what schools and how to get them there.
While HWDSB has already learned of some additional provincial funding headed its way — $1.2 million to hire more custodians, for instance — officials are still awaiting many more details.
“It’s trying to put a puzzle together and sometimes all the pieces aren’t there or partway through, the pieces of the puzzle change. Trying to fit them together sometimes is a real challenge,” Sovran said.
“Has it been stressful? Probably like no other time in any of our careers.”
No perfect solution, Ford says
Amid ongoing criticism of Ontario’s back-to-school plan, Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Education Stephen Lecce have repeatedly cited the need for flexibility to remain “responsive” to COVID conditions across the province.
“We have to be flexible when it comes to education … it doesn’t mean that everything will be perfect,” Ford noted on Wednesday.
An announcement regarding “improvements” to the back-to-school plan is forthcoming, Ford said, adding there would be no significant changes.
“We’re just going to continue working at the process and always improving it. I’ve never believed in just saying ‘OK, that’s it. Here, it’s done.’ “
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
