TORONTO — Central contracts covering more than 255,000 Ontario teachers and education workers expired Monday. Students still start class next week. The government had a legal chance to start talks in the spring and did not use it.The five major unions asked on March 2 to open bargaining early, citing the risk of a September mess. Under the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, the minister can allow central talks up to 180 days before expiry. That window opened about March 4. Queen’s Park did not take it. Notice to bargain went out June 3. The 2022–26 agreements lapsed Aug. 31 on schedule.Expiry is not a strike. A legal walkout still requires conciliation and a no-board report. Most English public unions are not even in full bargaining. They are at the Ontario Labour Relations Board over which issues belong at the provincial table and which stay with local boards. The Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association is the main group still talking.Education Minister Paul Calandra said last week schools will open as usual after Labour Day. Most public and Catholic boards return Sept. 8. He has said the old contracts will be honoured and called the stall “not unexpected.” “We remain committed to get a negotiated settlement, so that teachers have certainty, parents have certainty, and students have the best opportunity to succeed,” he told CBC News..Unions spent Saturday on the street in dozens of communities, including Queen’s Park, and have set Sept. 16 as an in-school day of solidarity. ETFO president David Mastin has said members are preparing strike votes. OSSTF president Martha Hradowy says the province wants to “centralize almost everything.” OSSTF puts Ford-era education “underfunding” at $6.4 billion since 2018. That is the union’s figure, not the province’s.The government is spending on buildings. On Aug. 20 Calandra pointed to 35 new and expanded schools this fall — more than 18,300 student spaces and about 1,130 child-care spaces — after more than $1 billion in project spending inside a $30-billion, 10-year school plan. Operating funding for 2026–27 is budgeted at $30.6 billion.Parents have watched this split since 2018: new schools on the news release, another August without a deal. The 2022 CUPE fight and Bill 28 are still recent. Saturday’s rallies also targeted board supervision and Bill 101 trustee caps.Calandra says wages and class size cannot be bargained until the central-local map is fixed. Unions say that map is the fight. Kids start Sept. 8 on the old contracts either way. Sept. 16 is the first date the unions have put on the school calendar.
