Ashley Brunette spent her first decade as a certified Ontario teacher moving to wherever the jobs were. And that meant far from her Kitchener home.

Brunette, 39, taught phys. ed and special education in small-town Manitoba, Thailand, the Dominican Republic and at a Montessori school in Toronto. She coached sports and volunteered and like many in her cohort, travelled the globe to find work amid a teacher surplus in Ontario.

After a year back home supply teaching and with no prospects of a full-time position, she wondered whether it was time for a new career.

“It’s incredibly frustrating for me as a qualified teacher with 10 years experience,” she says.

So it was a big relief Friday when Brunette found herself in demand — by British Columbia school boards who descended on Toronto hoping to lure Ontario teachers west.

Facing a teacher shortage, 19 B.C. school districts created buzz at a major teacher job fair, bearing promises of opportunity, job security, and even financial incentives.

“It feels good,” sighed Brunette, following sales pitches from the province’s two largest boards before heading off to interviews with two other school districts hoping to woo her.

The EdTalent Spring Job Fair, largest of its kind in the country attended by more than 3,500 job-seekers, always features boards from across the country, says Mark Laurie, president of ApplytoEducation, which produces software used in the hiring and application process and hosts the semi-annual event.

But this year the attention generated by the B.C. contingent, which matched Ontario with 19 school boards participating, was inescapable.

The Vancouver District School Board arrived with a splash, in the form of a press release describing mountains, ocean and its “desperate need of teachers.”

As an extra incentive the board is offering $1,500 in moving expenses as well as temporary home stays for anyone willing to relocate.

“Failure to fill (teaching positions) has been a challenge across lots of boards in B.C.,” Cheryl Douglas, manager of recruitment and retention at the Vancouver board, said in a phone interview.

As in other provinces, French immersion teachers are in the most demand, she says, and can expect to get permanent positions in a matter of weeks at some B.C. boards.

The Vancouver board, second-largest in the province behind nearby Surrey, hired 600 teachers last year, including from Ontario, and Douglas predicts the hiring frenzy to continue for another couple of years.

Want to move to the interior and embrace the outdoors? That’s what the school district in Quesnel is offering — along with tuition for permanent teachers who want to earn a Master’s degree, says Perry Lofstrom, director of human resources for instructors.

The B.C. recruiting drive, extending across Canada and internationally, was sparked by a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2016 that restored smaller class sizes and boosted funding for British Columbia public schools. That led to a teacher hiring blitz in order to meet the new requirements, which has resulted in more than 2,000 hires, and still hundreds more positions to fill.

With Ontario facing a glut of English-language teachers for the past decade, the western boards are hoping to entice new teachers’ college graduates or experienced teachers seeking job security, and relief from the 6 a.m. phone calls that come with supply teaching.

In Ontario, English-language teachers can be on supply lists for years before getting a full-time job.

But in Vancouver, new hires can land “continuous contract” positions almost immediately in high-needs categories. French immersion teachers are the primary target as B.C. struggles to maintain its existing programs. And most qualified candidates can be found in Ontario and Quebec, says Douglas.

Other shortages are in special education, primary grades and tech studies, says Janis Myers, one of two board principals who fielded questions from a steady stream of interested parties.

In Ontario, there are some signs that the surplus may be abating, including a recent shortage of supply teachers at some boards.

Mark Laurie, whose company supplies dispatch software used by some school boards to fill teacher absences, says a few factors are starting to shift the employment market, including the phasing in of full-day kindergarten that began in 2010 and the decision to extend teachers’ college to two years, which cut the pool of annual graduates in half.

But the shortage of French teachers is a persistent problem plaguing many boards. Earlier this year, the Halton Catholic District School Board threatened to end its program because of the struggle to find teachers.

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And parents at other boards in the GTA complain their children are often taught in English because there are so few French-speaking replacements for teachers who call in sick.

Last year, the province committed to steps to alleviate the shortage that include recruiting qualified French teachers from abroad, introducing measures to attract more French-speaking candidates to teachers’ college and a piloting program that provides financial assistance to teachers who want to boost their French qualifications.

The federal budget this year also acknowledged the challenge and said Ottawa planned to address problems recruiting and retaining French teachers, though no details have been provided.

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