When asked why Quebec teachers don’t deserve to be among the highest paid in Canada if their MNAs are on their way there, the Secretary of Education replied that the comparison was a bit lame and even a bit demagogic and that the work of teachers could not be compared with those of MEPs.
Are you really comparing a teacher’s job to a deputy’s job? Are you telling me it’s comparable? he asked columnist Michel David.
In an excerpt of a 2015 press conference posted online on Wednesday by former Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Jean-François Lisée, Mr Drainville, then a PQ MP led by Pierre Karl Péladeau, had a direct link established Public sector salaries and those of MPs refused a 31% increase.
The (liberal) government is proposing to impoverish nurses, teachers and civil servants and is proposing to us to increase MPs’ salaries by 31%. Come on, it doesn’t make sense, he denounced.
Today, the CAQ government specifically wants to increase salaries of elected officials by 30%, while proposing a 9-13% increase over five years for civil servants.
Minister Drainville’s comments to Le Devoir provoked a series of violent reactions from opposition parties.
The liberal education critic Marwah Rizqy sees nothing less than contempt in this.
Ms Rizqy, who was a teacher herself, reacted on social networks, recalling the effort that the teaching profession requires.
“After several months of substitute teaching, I can say that a teacher can be an excellent substitute, but the opposite is less true. »
– A quote from Marwah Rizqy, official opposition critic on education
The parliamentary leader of Québec Solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, insisted on expressing his outrage.
“There’s not much in life that annoys me more than this haughty and condescending attitude of political leaders,” he responded.
“How can we think so highly of ourselves and have so little regard for the people we are to serve? »
– A quote from Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, co-spokesperson for Québec Solidaire
I am deputy My girlfriend is an elementary school teacher. Despite my crazy schedules, I’ve never claimed to work harder than them or be more useful to society. “I have too much respect for his profession,” added the Quebec Solidaire representative-elect.
Pascal Bérubé, education spokesman for the Parti Québécois, described the minister’s reaction as heartbreaking. On Twitter, he also spoke of his father, who was a teacher.
I also have a bachelor’s degree in education. I tell you the respect I have for this profession, he concluded.
The Autonomous Federation for Education (FAE) insisted on responding in a publication entitled “Contempt is enough!”.
In the same interview, Minister Drainville admitted that teachers were not making enough money and that public sector negotiations were ongoing.
The minister recalled the salary increase of 14-18% granted at the end of the last negotiations and said he wanted teachers to be paid the best possible price because they – especially women – play an important role in our society.
Mr Drainville’s cabinet clarified on Wednesday that the minister was by no means implying that the profession of teacher was less important than that of deputy.
In his eyes, all professions and trades deserve equal respect, whether they are teachers, nurses, plumbers, police officers or construction workers, said his spokeswoman Florence Plourde.
Not ideal, admits LeBel
After the bill was introduced to increase MPs’ salaries by 30%, we learned that Prime Minister François Legault’s chief of staff, Martin Koskinen, had received a $71,000 pay rise.
The environment for renegotiating collective agreements in the public sector is not ideal, Treasury Department President Sonia LeBel admitted in an interview with Radio-Canada on Wednesday.
“It’s definitely not an ideal environment for negotiations and I understand that people get lost there,” she affirmed. Despite everything, we are fair and just for the public service and all networks.
Ms. LeBel on Wednesday presented a check for $12,000 to the 7,000 teachers who were eligible to retire as a sign of their willingness to keep their full-time positions for the next school year.