TORONTO

Ontario’s youngest learners likely won’t get their after class activities back in the near future.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), which represents public school teachers from junior kindergarten to Grade 8, announced Thursday that it would continue to advise members not to volunteer for extracurricular activities.

ETFO president Sam Hammond said the Ontario government under Premier Kathleen Wynne has tried to rebuild relationships with teachers and find constructive solutions to their outstanding issues which he declined to identify.

“We very much appreciate the tone, the respectfulness of the (discussion) table and the goodwill, the positive approach,” Hammond said. “But what our members want to see are concrete solutions, tangible solutions, to the concerns that they have ... The sooner we can find them, the better.”

The final decision whether to engage in extracurriculars will rest with members, and no one will face sanctions for participating, Hammond said.

Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals said her government has been working hard to restore a cordial and positive relationship with teacher and support staff unions, and she expressed disappointment with ETFO’s position.

Regardless of the union’s decision, some activities are returning to schools, Sandals said.

“I know that in many of the schools that the union has sort of relaxed some of the suggestions that they were making to their teachers,” Sandals said, speaking to reporters before the decision was announced. “Certainly, I know in my jurisdiction that some of the things that weren’t happening in November are happening again. And I think that’s true all over the province.”

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), agreed to remove its ban on extracurriculars a week ago as a sign of good faith, although some high school teachers are refusing to return to these activities.

Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod, who earlier this week proposed a motion that would have prevented teacher unions from penalizing members who offered extracurriculars at school and allow principals to accept outside volunteer coaches and club leaders, said the two sides in this dispute should just move on.

“The fight between the government and this union is being taken out on kids as young as four and five years old,” MacLeod said.

The teacher unions brought in the extracurriculars ban after the Ontario government passed Bill 115 and imposed contracts on their members that froze wages and ended sick day banking.

Premier Kathleen Wynne has said repeatedly that her government is offering no fiscal concession to unions in exchange for removing the ban, but has agreed to a new collective agreement process that should be in place by 2014.

NDP MPP Peter Tabuns said even the OSSTF only indicated that it would leave it up to their members whether to participate in extracurriculars, and many have chosen not to return to volunteering.

“The government acted in a very heavy-handed way in the last few months,” Tabuns said. “There’s a lot of ill will out there, a lot of angry people. It’s going to take a lot of work to clean up this mess.”