Striking faculty and Ontario’s colleges both say they remain in contact with a mediator, and will return to talks when he thinks there is any hope of movement by either side.

The job action by 12,000 professors, partial-load instructors, librarians and counsellors is now in its third day. The strike affects about 300,000 students across the province.

At Queen’s Park on Tuesday, both the premier and post-secondary minister urged the colleges and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union to restart negotiations and put an end to the strike.

“I am very concerned about it,” said Premier Kathleen Wynne. “We are paying very close attention to it. I hope that, in the very short future, we will see that the parties are at the table and they can hammer out an agreement.”

Read more: Students caught in crossfire amid strike at Ontario colleges

Wynne, however, also said the government, which is not involved in the negotiations, did not want to undermine the collective bargaining process.

“It is always an uncomfortable position for everyone and a very, very distressing situation when people are not able to go to their classes,” Wynne said during question period. “I know that the instructors and the teachers who are out don’t want to be out either. They want to be in the classroom with their students.”

Deb Matthews, minister of advanced education and skills development, said she and Wynne have made the public pleas for talks to resume, and told reporters that “I know that they can find the solution without interference from us . . . . We are letting the process unfold.”

She said she knows students are anxious “and I share their anxiety, but I think we still have to let the process work.”

When the strike is over, students need not worry about losing credits, she added, as “they figure out a way to get students back on track.”

For now, both the colleges and faculty remain far apart on key issues.

JP Hornick, chief OPSEU negotiator for the faculty, said the government could play a role by reversing the “chronic starving of the system” and give the proper resources to colleges, which she said are now the lowest funded education system in Canada.

“It’s lovely that they’d like us to get back to the table,” she said. “And as one of the major funders of the colleges, they have a lot to say in that.”

During the strike, a mediator continues to reach out to both sides.

Sonia Del Missier, who heads the colleges’ bargaining team, said, “when (the mediator) deems it appropriate, he will call us back” to the table.

“He works with the two sides, and will make the determination based on the information he is receiving from both the parties,” she said.

Hornick expects the mediator to check in soon, “but you don’t go back to the table unless one of the sides is willing to move.”

She said the union did alter its offer before calling a strike.

The colleges, which, during negotiations, upped their salary increase offer, have said the two sides are $250 million apart. Hornick said that amount, “spread around 24 colleges, isn’t an insurmountable amount of money.”

The government will have to provide the colleges with funding once Bill 148 is in place anyway, because it demands equal pay for part-time workers, Hornick said.

The colleges have said they can’t meet the union’s demands for 50 per cent of the total number of teachers to be full-time, not only because of the cost, but because it would not give them any flexibility.

Don Sinclair, CEO of the College Employer Council, called it a “recipe for disaster,” especially given declining enrolment.

He noted that half of all instructional hours are taught by full-timers.

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The colleges are offering a 7.75-per-cent raise over four years, and the union wants 9 per cent over three.

Patrick Brown, leader of the Ontario PC party, said the government “promised labour peace, and that students would be in the classroom” and pressed the premier to do more.

“Students can’t afford . . . not to be in class,” he said during question period. “They can’t afford to miss their mid-terms. I know this is uncomfortable for the government. The labour peace they promised has not been realized. But I want to see students in the classrooms. I want to see students back at colleges.”

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