Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 02/99) - Yellowknife's Catholic school teachers are witnessing a redemption.

The collective agreement teachers ratified last week by a 79 per cent margin includes raises and the restoration of benefits that had been frozen for the last two years of their current contract.

Pat Thomas, president of the NWT Teachers' Association responded to the vote by saying she was pleased the teachers would begin recovering the points lost three years ago.

"I hope this is the last time teachers will be asked to subsidize the education system by taking rollbacks, reductions and cuts," she said.

The proposed two-year agreement is set to take effect July 1 and highlights include a 2.75 per cent pay raise this year and a 2.25 per cent raise next year.

The two, annual unpaid "Donny Days" have also been eliminated. Named after former premier Morin, the days represented unpaid leave and were designed to save money.

Under the agreement, the teachers also return to the experienced-based pay grid. This system -- which sees an approximate 4 per cent pay raise with each year of teaching and is typically capped at a maximum of 10 years -- has been frozen for the past two years.

While the proposed agreement still faces a vote by the seven-member Yellowknife Catholic Schools board and Annalise Van Ham said it will cost more money, she also said Monday no surprises are expected.

"I think the negotiations went well -- and we were pleased to come out with a memorandum of understanding," said Van Ham, the board's assistant superintendent of business affairs. "It will cost the board more money, but it honours our staff and it is a reasonable change."

Van Ham said in some ways the city's 82 Catholic teachers are benefitting from what's been described as a crisis in education because of country-wide fears of a teacher shortage.

"We have seen a lot fewer applications from the south for here compared to previous years -- so that does give an indication that the market is more competitive (to attract and retain teachers)," she said. "We're hoping the government appreciates that, because that's where our funding comes from and we have to make sure our funding is sustainable."

Van Ham said that while the board followed with interest the recent government budget debates on education, there were few surprises.

"I think we hear from the same perspectives a great deal, and often -- from the teachers, from the parents," she said. "We're quite aware of the issues, in particular of (the shortage of resources for) special needs -- and the fact that there's more of a challenge in the legislature to find more funding, but we're not banking on it."