Updated: Saturday, May 24, 5:35 pm
Teacher fee to increase 3.3 per cent
The fee teachers’ pay to operate The Manitoba Teachers’ Society will increase 3.3 per cent next year.
Delegates to the MTS Annual General Meeting approved a budget that will see fees increase to $876 from $848.
The budget proposed by the provincial executive was accepted by the meeting without change.
SAG day moved back to October
That, beginning in 2009, the Special Area Group conference day will return to October from November.
It will now be held on the third Friday in October unless that falls in the same week as Thanksgiving. In that case, it will be held on the fourth Friday.
The day had been moved to November a few years ago, but since then attendance has declined.
New executive elected
Next year’s provincial executive will feature four new faces following a vote by AGM delegates.
Newly elected were Georgina Dyck-Hacault (Seine River), Julia McKay (Kelsey), Dan Turner (River East Transcona) and John Ehinger (Sunrise). Ehinger has served on provincial executive in the past.
The full executive for next year is:
President: Pat Isaak (Seven Oaks)
Vice-President: Paul Olson (Winnipeg)
Members at large:
Richard Alarie (AEFM)
Pam Stinson (Portage la Prairie)
Kyle McKinstry (Pine Creek)
Georgina Dyck-Hacault (Seine River)
John Ehinger (Sunrise)
Adam Grabowski (Park West)
Julia McKay (Kelsey)
Dan Turner (River East Transcona)
Karen Wiebe (Pembina Trails)
Pat Hamm (Prairie Rose)
Blaine Johnson (Mountain View)
Disability Benefits Plan shows surplus of $7 million, premium reduced
The MTS Disability Benefits Plan now has a surplus of at least $7 million, allowing delegates to the Annual General Meeting to cut premiums paid by teachers from 2.2 per cent of salary to 1.88 per cent.
The voted ended a recovery program started four years ago when the plan was $30 million in debt.
The recovery was accomplished through an increase in premiums four years ago (when the premium went up to 2.7 per cent), increased returns on investments and a decline last year in claims.
James Bedford, chairperson of the DBP, said the plan showed a decline in claims of just over six per cent, ending several years of rapid growth. From 1999 to 2007, disability claims rose 50 per cent.
The recent decline was due to fewer new claims and the “unexpected” closure of many existing claims, he said.
While the trend in younger teachers, under the age of 45, making more claims has not continued into the past year, Bedford said that is still a concern.
Last year the plan was very concerned about claims from younger teachers because such claimants stay longer on disability because they are not near retirement, thus costing the plan more in payments.
Bedford said the plan would continue to monitor such claims closely as the DBP, like other disability plans, is designed around older employees making disability claims.
At the same time, the plan is putting renewed effort into its Early Intervention Program, designed to help teachers before they need to make a disability claim.
The EIP, which operates in about 20 school divisions, has been somewhat dormant over the past six months because of the workload on case managers. Two more have been hired to focus on the program.
“By adding staff we can expand the program, decrease claims and plan expenses,” Bedord said, adding that for every $1 spent on the program, the DBP saves $3 in claims.
“Come fall, we expect to be going full speed.”
In other business regarding the Disability Benefits Plan, delegates voted to change the governance structure of the organization.
Delegates voted to give the MTS provincial executive the mandate to appoint the board members who oversee the plan. Until now, those board members have been elected at the Annual General Meeting.
That change, and others, came about after a review of the plan’s governance by an MTS committee.
The first to be appointed to the board that run the plan will be members who were elected at the AGM.
Time for the Society to address other issues of concern, says president
As the debate over teachers’ pensions winds down, it is time for MTS to move onto other issues of concern for members, says Society President Pat Isaak.
Speaking to the 89th Annual General Meeting, Isaak told delegates that two of those issues are student behaviour and class size and composition.
“For many years, our members have told us that class size and composition is their number one concern,” she said. “And student behaviour has been a close second.
“This year, for the first time, those two issues were reversed, with student behaviour being identified as number one. Despite what the media tried to portray as shocking and spiraling violence in public schools, teachers were not at all surprised by these results.”
Isaak said teachers know that both issues – class size and composition and student behaviour – are linked. Schools are neither violent nor unsafe, but there are challenges, especially concerning class sizes. But class size isn’t just about overcrowding.
Certainly, “36 students in a class is a problem. But 36 students in a school is also a challenge. In more and more rural communities, teachers are working incredibly hard to provide quality programming and the widest possible range of opportunities for their students.
“At the same time, across the province we are faced with a host of issues that result from declining enrolment, issues such as multi-grade classrooms, limited access to specialist services for students and dwindling financial resources.”
It is difficult, however, to put an exact number on what a class size should be. Teachers know that a class of 16 can be more difficult at times than a class of 25, depending on composition.
“Teaching and learning are not linear equations. Teaching and learning are all about human interaction and human behaviour and human growth and development. And it is for that reason that we rail against anyone who tries to reduce our work, or our students, to a number.”
While the provincial executive turns to other issues, there will still be work to be done on pensions, no matter what the results of an upcoming vote on how to address the pension plan’s annual cost of living adjustment.
“I want you all to know that the plebiscite was not something we waded into lightly, nor should it be a precedent for the future,” she said. “We requested the plebiscite because we were out of options.”
Isaak said the government report on the plan was a fair and equitable result of the work done on the issue and she again urged members to support it.
Minister defends moratorium on school closures in Manitoba
Manitoba Education Minister Peter Bjornson defended his government's decision to put a freeze on school closures.
Speaking to the MTS Annual General Meeting, Bjornson said school closures were having an "incredible and profound" effect on local communities. 
The decision to stop closures is a first step to providing stability while the whole issue and its impact on teachers, students and communities is examined, he said.
"A different approach is a different way of thinking and a different way of thinking is change and change is difficult."
Bjornson said some students in Manitoba are already having to spend and hour on a bus just to get to school and that isn't good for their education.
He said there has to be a limit to the amount of time students spend on buses just to get to and from school.
As in previous years, Bjornson listed the provincial government's accomplishments in improving funding to schools.
He repeated that his government is committed to public education as an integral part of the overall strategy for the province.
"You cannot have good economic policies without good education policies."
'International students shouldn't be seen as dollar signs by school boards'
MTS wants school divisions to stop recruiting international students just to bring in more revenue.
Delegates to the Society’s Annual General Meeting voted to support a resolution that the organization oppose such recruiting, now being done in a number of school divisions.
Some school divisions can bring in up to $10,000 a year from an international student.
“Children are not dollar signs that come into schools,” said Pat Hamm, a member of the provincial executive. "Children are there to get an education, not to be used as sources of revenue. We have to maintain the integrity of public schools.”
The provincial executive resolution said that some school divisions are using international students as sources of revenue, providing support at the division level, while “limited supports are provided at the school level.”
“As teachers we need to protect the right of all children to education regardless of which country they live.”
Hamm emphasized this only referred to divisions going out and recruiting students, not to programs that, for example, conduct exchanges between countries.
John Ehinger, president of the Sunrise Teachers’ Association, said the issue goes beyond recruitment in Manitoba.
The recruitment of international students who can afford to go to school here drains resources from their country’s educational system. What school divisions are offering is private schooling at the expense of another country’s public system, he said.
As supporters of public schools, The Manitoba Teachers’ Society must support public schools in other countries as well.
The resolution passed by an overwhelming margin, with the only opposition pointing out that the presence of international students does enhance the education of all students and helps smaller schools.
Delegates also passed a resolution that said the provision of supports for international students should not increase the workload of teachers.
“Currently, international students are placed into classrooms with minimal support offered the classroom teacher,” the resolution said. “As these students lack the skills necessary to participate in the language of the classroom, they require additional time and preparation for the teacher, thus increasing the workload.”
In other business, delegates to the AGM:
- Defeated a proposal that the Society reimburse teachers who attend MTS events up to $20 a day for pet care. The proposal had made international news prior to the AGM.
- Defeated a proposal to establish an ad-hoc committee on equity and social justice. Speakers in favour pointed out that MTS is the only teachers’ union in Canada without such a committee and that it is an area of growing concern. Opponents said such issues should be dealt with by existing committees.
Pension plan shows strong investment returns compared with peers
The Manitoba teachers’ pension plan did better on its investments than its counterparts in other provinces last year, the plan’s president and chief executive officer told the annual meeting of MTS.
Jeff Norton said that while the Teachers’ Retirement Allowances Fund had a return on investments well below the previous year, it did well against benchmarks it sets.
“We had a very, very strong performance against other plans,” he said. TRAF investments had returns of 5.7 per cent last year while its peers had investment returns of around two per cent.
The year before that, TRAF had returns of 15.6 per cent, but Norton said the year-over-year decline is not a problem.
In the long-term, which is the plan’s main focus, it has shown strong performance. Over the past 30 years it has had an average annual return of 10 per cent. And in the past 10 years that figure was 8.9 per cent. Both its best and worst years have been in the past five years: minus-2.1 per cent in 2002 and 15.6 per cent in 2006.
While revenue from investments continues to grow, so does the number of retired teachers receiving pensions.
Brenda Venuto, vice-president of TRAF member services, said 10 years ago the ratio of active teachers to retired teachers was two to one. Now, there are just 1.3 active teachers to every retired teacher or 14,987 active teachers to 11,139 retired teachers.
As well, there are currently 2,000 active teachers aged 55 or more who are eligible to retire and another 2,500 who will reach the eligible retirement age in the next five years.
