Sask. high school worries band trip to NYC will be cancelled amid teacher job action
High school students in North Battleford are worried their trip to New York City could get cancelled, as teachers continue to withdraw from extracurricular activities.
North Battleford Comprehensive High School Concert Band is scheduled to leave for New York City on March 14.
The students are set to tour the city and perform at various venues during the five-day trip.
Dominique Mannix's 15-year-old daughter is one of the 29 students booked on the trip.
"Hopefully it's going to go ahead, but we're also being a little bit realistic and realizing that there's a good chance that they may not be able to go next week," Mannix said.
"They're disappointed, they're worried. They obviously have planned and worked really hard on being able to go on this trip and they're super excited to go."
Mannix said some of the students' fundraising efforts have been cancelled as a result of teacher job action.
"We don't want to be taking these actions, but unfortunately, we have no other choice," Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) President Samantha Becotte told CTV News.
Saskatchewan Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill disagreed.
"The job sanctions that the STF chooses to make, that's the STF's decision on what, where and when those jobs sanctions are," Cockrill said.
"I would urge the STF leadership to spend less time pulling extracurricular and spend more time at the bargaining table."
The STF said the government has refused to include language around class sizes and support for kids with complex needs in teacher contracts.
"Government to this point in time has not provided their bargaining team with the authority to engage in conversations. It has only been 'take it' or 'leave it' offers — and that isn't true, good faith negotiations," Becotte said.
Mannix is hopeful a deal can be reached before the trip.
"Some of these kids, especially the ones in grade 12, they probably won't get another opportunity to go," Mannix said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.