by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 12/97) -A teacher trying to get a job in Gjoa Haven says that educators in the North still have more benefits than teachers in the South, despite recent cuts.

"While I taught in the south, I'd travel from classroom to classroom with a cart full of books," said Katherine Keyes, a French teacher in Yellowknife.

Comparing her teaching in the North to teaching in the South, Keyes said her experience has shown that the North is a better place to work.

"When I came North, I have a classroom, my own computer, and a TA (teacher's assistant)," she said.

Keyes' testimony to the benefits of Northern teaching comes at time when the NWT Teacher's Association is discouraging teachers from moving to the territories to work.

In recent days, the union has placed national ads in The Globe and Mail newspaper that outline the cuts teachers have been dealt by the GNWT over the last two years.

Pat Thomas, president of the association, said that the style of living in the North has changed for teachers, leaving them with decreased benefits and a lower standard of living.

"People who will come here now will have a different style of living -- especially for those new teachers with student loans," she said. "People should contact us first before coming up here."

GNWT teachers' cuts include reductions in travel allowance and a 6.25 per cent wage rollback that includes the housing allowance that once was a separate benefit. The contract used to include a $5,400 housing allowance over and above the base salary.

The total loss to teachers' income in the 1995-96 compensation package, said Thomas, is roughly $16,000 or nearly 19 per cent.

In 1993, a teacher with 11 years experience and a bachelor of education degree working in Hay River with four dependents, could look forward to a total benefits package of $86,965. By 1996, the compensation had decreased to $70,758.

Despite the high numbers, Thomas denies that teachers in the North have been, in the past, overpaid.

"If you look at the numbers, it looks like a lot, but when you look at the cost of living, it's not that much," she said.

"It's a struggle to live with the wage package -- it shouldn't be this way."

Thomas said that cuts like these will inevitably deter people from moving to Northern communities. While she wouldn't speculate on the possibility that some positions might not be filled for the upcoming school year, she did say that it may eventually lead to some problems in recruiting teachers.

While it's debatable that the cuts had anything to do with recent decisions by teachers leaving Nanisivik, Arviat, Coral Harbour and Resolute Bay -- just some of the Northern communities that have been hit with multiple resignations recently -- many argue that these positions will be difficult to fill.

Keyes, who plans to move to Gjoa Haven to be with her partner, admits the cuts have been substantial, but holds to the belief that the situation in the NWT is still better than the South.

She did, however, say that if the cuts continue, the situation will likely change.

"If we continue to see these things happening, things will go down hill," he said.

The reductions in benefits will also discourage families from staying in the communities because of the loss to the travel packages.

"It's not so bad for a single person, but it's rough for a family," she said.

Keyes said the most serious implication of the current cuts is the loss of stability in the communities.

"People with families just won't want to stay," she added.