SUSAN LEBLANC: Speaker, Nova Scotia’s population is growing, and enrolment in our schools is increasing in step. This is putting immense pressure on our teachers. A recent survey from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union found that 84 per cent of Nova Scotia teachers have considered leaving the profession in the last five years due to burnout, a lack of resources, and several other factors, and I will table that. My question for the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development is: What is this government doing to protect our teachers from burning out?
HON. BECKY DRUHAN: It is incredibly important that our staff team of 20,000 across the province -10,000 of whom are teachers -and others feel supported to be able to provide the support and education that our students need. Our government knows and understands this. That is why we have spent so much time connecting with, listening to, and acting on the advice, recommendations, ideas, and suggestions of teachers and educators across the province. Speaker, I’m excited to tell you about all the things that we’ve heard. I have met with over 60 staff teams in meetings. I’ve been to dozens of schools, and they’ve given us ideas, like how we add more food to schools. We’re introducing a lunch program based on that advice.
SUSAN LEBLANC: I’m going to table an op-ed by the Nova Scotia Teachers Union president, Ryan Lutes, which talks about the need for another way to support teachers, which is making sure that we support our substitutes. One way to take the pressure off our schools is by addressing the chronic shortage of substitute teachers. The wages of Nova Scotia’s substitute teachers have not kept pace with the steep increase in the cost of living. In fact, they have not even keptpace with the wages of substitute teachers in other provinces. Our substitute teachers are some of the lowest-paid across Canada. I will table that op-ed. My question to the minister is: Will this government give Nova Scotia’s substitute teachers the pay raise they need?
BECKY DRUHAN: Speaker, I’ve said on many other occasions that I value and respect the bargaining process, and so I’m certainly not going to engage in that on the floor. The question of substitute teacher pay is one of the types of issues that can be at the table as teachers bargain, so I am not going to address that. This is something that I’ve spoken to with those thousands of teachers I’ve talked to. While we await that bargaining process to unfold, we’ve taken action. Based on the request of teachers across the province, we’ve increased the term subs, so that we now have term substitute teachers across the province who are available to be deployed into classes when they’re needed, as they’re needed. They build relationships in schools, and that’s something we’ve done on action directly on advice from teachers.