The Honourable Rachna Singh
Minister of Education and Child Care
Government of British Columbia
PO Box 9045 Stn Prov Govt
Victoria, B.C. V8W 9E2

Dear Minister Singh,

Re: Follow-up Request for Adjustment of Pay Equity Supplement

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing as the Chair of the Board of Education of School District No. 68 (Nanaimo-Ladysmith) to follow up on our previous communication dated February 25, 2021. We understand that this issue predates your tenure, and we appreciate your attention to this matter.

As you are aware, the principle of pay equity is to ensure equal pay for work of equal value, addressing historical disparities between typically male-dominated positions and female-dominated positions within the education system. We are grateful for the Ministry’s commitment to pay equity, which began in the period 1998-2003. However, we are writing to urgently request the immediate adjustment of our District’s Pay Equity Supplement to reflect the true cost of implementing Pay Equity as of 1998 or alternatively fund the District at the provincial average of Pay Equity supplements received by all Districts based on FTE.

In our previous letter, we highlighted how our District’s progressive actions resulted in early compliance with pay equity principles, as early as 1992. Unfortunately, this led to an inequitable funding situation, where our District received a disproportionately lower amount of pay equity funds compared to other Districts. Over the past two decades, this funding disparity has amounted to tens of millions of dollars in lost funding for the students of Nanaimo-Ladysmith.

We firmly believe that rolling the Pay Equity Supplement into the Operating Grant Block, as we proposed in our previous letter, would be a fair and equitable solution. We understand the potential challenges this may pose for some Districts, but in the long-term, it would benefit everyone and ensure a just distribution of resources.

We were encouraged by the Independent Panel for the Funding Model Review’s recognition of this issue and their recommendation to add this special grant to the operating block. We sincerely hope that you can take action to rectify this inequity without negatively impacting other Districts.

Additionally, we would like to request a meeting with you at your earliest convenience to discuss this matter further. A personal conversation would provide us with an opportunity to elaborate on the challenges our District faces and explore potential solutions together.

We thank you for your attention to this matter and your commitment to fairness and equality in the education system. Your support in addressing this longstanding issue would have a profound impact on the educational opportunities we can provide to the students in our District.

Looking forward to speaking with you further on this matter,

Sincerely,

Greg Keller
Board Chair