Francophone school trustees and senior administrators received raises last year while teachers working in the schools they manage carried out their duties without a contract.
Eleven elected officials — known as “les commissionaires” in the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine — collectively earned $25,000 more in 2023 than they did in 2022, for a total of $226,435.
The school division’s latest public sector compensation disclosure report shows honorariums for the board rose by 13 per cent overall.
ANDREW RYAN / FREE PRESS FILES
Alain Laberge, superintendent of the Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine, defends the raises of senior executives, noting the difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified bilingual staff.
Superintendent Alain Laberge’s salary was topped up by eight per cent during that period.
Laberge oversees the employment of 1,200 workers involved in teaching and supporting upwards of 6,000 students across 24 schools in rural and urban communities in Manitoba. Last year, his pay was $243,386.
“Rank-and-file workers don’t look kindly on these types of things,” said Adam King, an assistant professor of labour studies at the University of Manitoba.
“It definitely can rub workers the wrong way. From the other side, it might also be that the union uses it as a mobilizing tool to frame its messaging, to mobilize its members around a particular wage ask at the bargaining table.”
Both Laberge and the board of trustees’ president noted the salaries are a single-year snapshot and do not reflect the complex operations of the unique district or the different cyclical natures of contracts with unionized and non-unionized groups.
The executive team at the Association des éducatrices et éducateurs franco-manitobains, a local of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society representing roughly 650 part-time and full-time teachers, declined to comment, citing ongoing negotiations.
Last week, MTS and the Manitoba School Boards Association announced they had reached an agreement that would see anglophone teacher pay rise by more than 12 per cent over four years. The comprehensive deal replaces 37 division-specific ones that expired in July 2022.
The historic ratification has shifted teachers’ attention to an impasse in negotiations between francophone members of MTS — who have also been without a contract for two years — and their division.
The parties are preparing for arbitration. Formal dates have yet to be set.
“Negotiations don’t always go as fast as each side would like but we’re negotiating with good faith,” said Bernard Lesage, spokesman for the francophone school board.
Elected board members review their compensation packages every year as part of standard division protocols.
Trustees have done without raises in recent years, in part to remain in line with the former government’s austerity directives, but they recently decided to return to cost-of-living adjustments, said Lesage, who’s been on the board for 20 years.
The veteran board member said last year’s 13 per cent hike reflects “the whole package,” including meal, travel and professional development expenses. The 2023 total is the equivalent of $20,500 per trustee.
As for the superintendent’s pay bump, Lesage said it reflects changes that were made midway through Laberge’s current contract to recognize the extra time he put in during the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing demand for bilingual education leaders across Canada.
“It’s a job that requires a lot of sacrifice … It’s not a 40-hours-a-week (position); he’s on call 24/7,” the board spokesman added.
When reached by phone, Laberge defended about a dozen recent raises for senior employees including himself, the secretary-treasurer and communications manager, by highlighting the challenges of retaining qualified bilingual managers who are willing to travel often for work.
The superintendent said administrative employees have individualized contracts that expire at different times and they are addressed accordingly based on competitive rates across Canada’s minority-language workforce.
Teachers will receive back-pay once their contract is settled, he added.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., Maggie was an intern at the Free Press twice while earning her degree at Ryerson’s School of Journalism (now Toronto Metropolitan University) before joining the newsroom as a reporter in 2019. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
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