YOUR FEDER ATION - ANNUAL MEE TING 2023
CTF PRESIDENT HEIDI YETMAN ADDRESSED ANNUAL MEETING DELEGATES
H M
arit Stiles, leader of the of- ficial Opposition and MPP for Davenport,
and Terence Kernaghan, MPP for London
North Centre and ETFO member, brought greetings on behalf of Ontario’s New Demo- cratic Party. Stiles congratulated ETFO on its 25th anniversary and quipped, “I absolutely love when I get to be in a crowd of teachers; as a former education critic, it feels like com- ing home,” before taking a more serious tone. “We have a government that is not sat-
isfied on cutting public education, it is hell bent on constructing a crisis and privatiz- ing our incredible public assets,” said Stiles. “But we are on to them and will not let them get away with it. We will replace them with a government that doesn’t govern with cuts and chaos and ideology. I want to thank you. Your fight at the bargaining table is all our fight.” She called on the Ford government to come to the table with fair proposals for the educators in public elementary schools in Ontario.
eidi Yetman, who took the reins as president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) in July, spoke to the importance of
working across the country to protect and enhance public education. In a political cli- mate where governments are pushing for greater privatization, collaboration between unions and the work of the CTF is more important than ever, she said. “Te answer to almost any issue facing our communities begins with robust, quality, publicly funded public education.” Yetman noted that the Ontario govern-
ment continues to introduce changes without meaningful collaboration and consultation
with front-line educators. She talked about the ways the government is undermining public education with chronic underfund- ing and actions like Bill 98, which gives more power to the minister of education, and Bill 124, wage-restraint legislation that was re- pealed aſter unions stood up against it. Most recently, the government introduced PPM 168, which undermines collective agree- ments and bargaining. Because education is a national priority,
CTF has been working in partnership with other education organizations across the country to create a national advisory council on public education, which will take issues directly to the Federal government.
SPECIAL GUESTS MARIT STILES AND TERRENCE KERNAGHAN
38 ETFO VOICE | FALL 2023
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