HALIFAX—Nova Scotia’s education minister hopes to capitalize on the glut of teachers cut loose under planned budget cuts in Ontario.

Last week, an Ontario education ministry memo obtained by the Star indicated plans to cut 3,475 teaching jobs over the next four years. The revelation led to a large public outcry, with a massive rally staged outside the Ontario legislature on Saturday.

While public school enrolment is declining in Ontario — one of the reasons the ministry gave for the cuts — it has been on the rise in Nova Scotia since 2015. Nova Scotia Education Minister Zach Churchill said there’s a particular “pressure” on the availability of substitute teachers in the province, and his department has been actively recruiting across the country to fill the void.

With the news out of Ontario last week, Churchill said there could be an influx of supply on the teacher market.

“We think there might be some specific opportunities for recruitment out of Ontario right now, considering what’s happening,” Churchill said at Province House on Tuesday.

He said he did not know specifically how many teachers Nova Scotia will hire this year, but the allocation in the 2019-20 budget would allow it to match hires made in recent years.

Since the 2013-14 school year, the province has created 1,000 teaching positions. There have been more than 9,000 public school teachers in Nova Scotia each year since 2014.

Churchill said Nova Scotia has a specific need for math and French teachers. He said his department appeals to both new and veteran teachers through direct marketing, social-media advertising and career fairs.

Qualified teachers are often recruited from other provinces, he added.

“We do this every year, we try to recruit teachers from other jurisdictions across the country. Other jurisdictions tend to do that as well. We enjoy poaching good people from one another, and that’s great to have kind of a competitive process like that in our country.”

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