Near North budget puts 50 people out of work

CUPE members picket before the Near North Public School Board meeting Tuesday night.

Parents, school board workers and union members all walked out of the Near North School Board meeting Tuesday night shaking their heads at the 5 to 4 vote in favour of passing the proposed budget of $125 million.

By passing the budget, the board has sent 50 Educational Assistants and support staff packing.

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members staged a rally outside of the Near North School Board office before the meeting in hopes of urging the trustees to vote in favour of passing a one per cent deficit budget which would amount to $1.2 million and ultimately save the jobs for the time being.

Monique Drapeau, a CUPE Representative, says that she doesn’t fully blame the school board for the decision.

“We certainly blame the province too. The funding is not adequate, but I think the board is not looking at a fair way to save money,” Drapeau said.

This sentiment was echoed by a few of the trustees. Trustees Jay Aspin and David Thompson were among the few who felt that the board didn’t do enough to save the jobs.

“I don’t believe we did our whole homework,” Aspin said.

“We owe it collectively to the public to look at it more. We can examine different ways to cut a $1.2 million shortfall,” he added.

Thompson proposed an idea at the meeting that would take $500 000 set up for court costs and use it to pay some of the salaries of the people whose jobs are being cut.

Drapeau agreed with Thompson’s idea that jobs could be saved by not going to arbitration.

“We could certainly sit down and mediate settlements or mutually agree on something without having to pay lawyers' fees,” Drapeau said about arbitration costs being a factor in the current budget.

This idea was soon shot down by other trustees arguing that it wouldn’t be good to draw on their arbitration money.

Eunice Saari, Vice Chair of the board, said that the real problem doesn’t lie at the board table but rather with the Province of Ontario.

“I think it’s time to make funding an election issue,” Saari said.

“Passing or not passing this budget is not the real issue. I think it’s time to say… the emperor has no cloths,” Saari said, meaning it’s time to call out the Premier.

Drapeau said she thinks the fight isn’t over yet.

“I don’t think it’s over. I think we’re still going to fight for it,” she said.

“I think we’re really going to have to look at the budget and see where we can save. We can make some suggestions and I’m sure we will have some good ones. We have a lot of good people involved here,” she added.