Contract talks with the Ontario’s high school teachers won’t resume until next month at the earliest as targeted one-day strikes continue across the province.

A new mediator broke off bargaining a day early on Monday, and no new talks are scheduled, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Harvey Bischof said Tuesday.

“We have not heard from the mediator” since Monday, Bischof said, adding the idea was “everybody step back for the holidays, and come back in January.”

“I’m not expecting anything over the holidays,” he added.

The newly appointed mediator said there was no point in continuing to bargain, given the sides are so far apart.

As a result, a one-day strike by public high school teachers and some support staff was set to go ahead Wednesday in 12 school boards, including Halton and York Regions.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce again urged the union to cancel the daylong strikes, which close public high schools and elementary schools as well as some French and Catholic schools. OSSTF also represents some support workers and professional staff like psychologists and speech-language pathologists.

“Union leaders need to call off this needless job action and let students remain in class. This continued disruption only causes uncertainty for parents and their children,” Lecce said in a statement.

“I remain committed to reaching deals at the table, and call on OSSTF to accept private mediation, and to put forward proposals to advance negotiations.”

This is OSSTF’s third one-day walkout. The first, on Dec. 4, was province-wide, while last week’s targeted nine boards including the Toronto District School Board.

This week, teachers will be picketing at schools as well as outside Lecce’s King-Vaughan constituency office.

“It is unfortunate that in the two weeks since our first province-wide action the government has still not tabled a single proposal that would get us closer to the outcome that parents” and educators want, Bischof said.

NDP education critic Marit Stiles said having a new Ministry of Labour mediator call off talks is “a really bad sign ... this is not good for parents.”

She blamed the government for not reversing plans that will cut thousands of teaching jobs and eliminate tens of thousands of course options for teens.

“To me, it sounds like the government is looking to escalate. What we don’t want as parents is to see our kids out of school, and we don’t want to see these cuts.”

The government wants to increase high school class sizes from last year’s average of 22 students to 25, down from its original plan for 28. It also is introducing two mandatory online courses, the highest number required anywhere in North America.

A few U.S. states, including Florida and Alabama, mandate or encourage one such credit for graduation.

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The government is also offering teachers a one per cent wage increase, which is in line with its recent salary-cap legislation. OSSTF is proposing a cost-of-living increase of about 2 per cent.

The boards impacted Wednesday are: Lakehead, Thunder Bay Catholic, Lambton Kent, Thames Valley, Waterloo, Waterloo Catholic, York, York Catholic, Halton and Kawartha Pine Ridge, as well as a number of schools in Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir and Conseil scolaire Viamonde.