The union representing Ontario’s public high school teachers has sent a formal notice to begin bargaining, a procedural move that kick-starts what is expected to be a tough round of negotiations.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) is the first education union to make the request under a new timeline introduced by the Ford government.

“They opened up the opportunity for us to serve notice, and we have no reason to delay,” said Harvey Bischof, OSSTF president.

The move means the sides have 15 days to meet to begin preliminary discussions on what issues will be bargained centrally — typically big-money items — and what will be negotiated between individual boards and union locals in the province’s two-tier bargaining system.

“This is very much a procedural matter at this time,” Bischof told the Star. “The first thing we need to come to an agreement on — or if not, resolve it in another way — is what’s central and what’s local.”

(If there’s no agreement on what is to be bargained centrally and locally, the matter will go to the labour relations board.)

Education contracts expire at the end of August, and in the past talks would typically have started around June.

But Education Minister Lisa Thompson recently signalled she wanted to begin early, changing a regulation to allow that to happen should the unions agree.

“We need to make sure student success is the primary focus of our education system once again. In order to do that we need the teacher federations and education worker unions to come to the table,” Thompson said in a written statement after receiving the OSSTF letter.

“We look forward to beginning this process with the OSSTF and we encourage the remaining parties to come to the table as well.”

The bargaining notice comes as hundreds of potential layoff notices are going out to elementary and secondary teachers across the province.

The provincial government is phasing in larger classes starting in Grade 4, and over the next four years will shed 3,500 teaching positions — though some critics estimate up to 10,000 — through resignations and retirements, not layoffs.

Thompson has set aside $1.6 billion in a fund to help boards manage the loss of teachers, and promised not one will involuntarily lose their job.

“I don’t buy for a minute — and I don’t think anybody in Ontario buys for a minute — this government’s assertion that no teachers are going to lose their job,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, warning of support staff losses as well given funding shortfalls in education grants announced last week.

On Friday, the province announced a nearly $24.7 billion in yearly education grants, up slightly from last year. However, that budget includes the first instalment of the $1.6 billion attrition fund, about $564.5 million.

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Overall, per pupil spending is dropping by about $600 million.

Premier Doug Ford has also said that in the future, teacher contracts will not expire right before the start of the school year.