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While parents may be relieved that classrooms will return to a semblance of normal, it would be difficult for anyone to classify the result of the latest bargaining as a success. The unions have once again be revealed as powerful and self-serving organizations overwhelmingly concerned with their own well-being at the expense of any impediments that get in their way. While proclaiming devotion to the interests of students, teachers agreed to divert money from special programs for troubled students to give themselves a raise. The unions, even as they regularly assailed the government for failing to respect the bargaining process and teachers “needs”, neglected to mention the government was secretly paying them millions of dollars towards their bargaining costs.

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals, meanwhile, emerge looking devious, secretive and far from capable. After introducing a new two-tier bargaining process, supposedly to streamline negotiations, it was forced to admit it had added significantly to costs and delays. One union advised members the system had “added many new layers of complexity to the process” and that costs “were three to four times higher than in previous years.” The government then used the faulty new procedure to justify the secret payments to the unions – even while admitting previous governments had followed a similar practice. Wynne, Sandals and deputy premier Deb Matthews couldn’t keep their story straight, first insisting there was no need to demand receipts from the unions, then declaring proof of expense claims would be demanded and agreeing to support a review by the auditor general.