NGPS is advocating to the provincial government on the carbon tax and curriculum concerns

During the May 24, 2022, Northern Gateway Public Schools (NGPS) Trustee Meeting, Trustee Linda Wigton provided an update from the Advocacy Committee. The Infrastructure and Maintenance Renewal Program (IMR) was one of several topics mentioned as “pressure points” for the division. The funding they receive for IMR is directly tied to the student population. “If numbers drop, the funding lowers even though the costs still remain for the building,” explained Wigton.

She explained that the Advocacy Committee discussed how they could advocate to the provincial government to help fund maintenance costs and any shortfalls. “Also, we got into the whole idea of fuel costs in general which are obviously increasing and putting pressure on us. We discussed a letter that we would like to write to the government around these issues.”

Wigton said the committee wanted to bring the idea forward and let all trustees know their intentions. “We also talked about the possibility of, and this probably wouldn’t happen this year, but next year having meetings with our local MLAs and our local government representatives around some of our advocacy strategies, especially since some of the pressures that we are feeling we are sure they are feeling as well. Perhaps there’s an opportunity for us to work together on some of these issues,” she explained.

Another of the issues they wanted to be active in advocating about had to do with the provincial curriculum. “As it has been noted, we have written a letter, and it is on our website, about delaying the curriculum and of course, we are not happy with the timing and the rollout. But we have learned from administration that the school teachers are receiving some supports, and they are fairly good supports, and they are getting them fairly quickly.”

Wigton explained that the committee discussed offering a “carrot” to the government. “We discussed the possibility of offering a carrot, a thank you for that, but also presenting some of our concerns as well.” Explaining further, Wigton said that giving the government credit for the good things they are doing and saying thank you for those things could be a way of bringing up their concerns. “I think those types of strategies, working with this particular government, offering the carrot, and giving a kudos for where it’s deserved but also putting out some of the issues that we’re having,” she said.

Superintendent Kevin Bird, also on the Advocacy Committee, said the curriculum topic was an example of how to use this way of advocating for the betterment of the school division. “Some of the work that’s being done at the ministry level to help with this implementation is really excellent work. We kind of saw this back in the day when the government announced masks and testing. And, I have to be honest, I didn’t think we would ever see them and then literally three days later, a truck rolled up, and they dropped them off. Somewhere over there in that government world, there were managers doing really excellent work, and I see the same things having happened here. They made some excellent decisions around some of the curricular support pieces that have come in and some of the ways they are supporting that and providing really excellent opportunities for money investment and stuff like that. I think those things have to be recognized.”

Bird said that on the fuel side, the same type of advocacy can happen, where they give credit for one thing while asking for help on something simultaneously. “We have a government who is, as far as I know anyway, resisting the carbon tax. Our carbon tax, $130,000, is how much we have (to pay), which is a teacher (value-wise), approximately, that is just going out the door next year to this carbon tax. So, this government is resisting this carbon tax, and I think recognizing that and saying, yes, thank you for doing this, and here are the pressures we are feeling because of this,” he explained.

Bird added that he felt this way of thinking would be effective. “Thank you for these decisions. Thank you for how these decisions are rolling out. Here’s our problem with the rest of the pieces. I think that’s an effective way of going forward,” he concluded. Wigton motioned to have the Advocacy Committee draft a letter to the government concerning the rising carbon tax and curriculum, which passed. She said they would get the letter out sooner rather than later.