Stephen McNeil makes direct appeal to teachers taking strike vote

Premier Stephen McNeil acknowledged frustration Tuesday that his government has so farfailed to reach a deal acceptable to Nova Scotiateachers andmade a direct appeal to them.

"I am more than prepared to improve the learning environment, more than prepared to reach out and make that happen," he told reporters at Province House.

"Specifically what is it that you want me to do?"

Most direct appeal yet

It's the most direct and impassionedappeal the premier has made to teachers in thesefailed negotiations. His government has twice reached tentative agreements with Nova Scotia Teachers Union negotiators, but both deals have been subsequentlyrejected by theunionmembership.

OnTuesday,Nova Scotia'sapproximately 9,300 public school teachers are voting on whether to grant their union a strike mandate.

"The frustration is that we're responding to what they're bringing to us," he said. "So they're asking us about reduced [class]sizes, so we're responding to that. They want outcomes reduced. We've responded to that. They wanted mental health clinicians. We've responded to that. They wanted math mentors. We responded to that. They wanted reading recovery reinstated. We responded to that."

"So what is left out there that we haven't responded to?"

Opposition unimpressed by plea

McNeilsaidhe respectedthe right of teachers to vote to strike but he refused to say how his government would respond to that vote or would act if teachers walked off the job.

Both opposition party leaders wereunimpressed by the plea.

"This shows how badly the government has managed the teachers' negotiations all along," PC Leader Jamie Baillie said. "This could have all been settled by a sincere effort to make improvements in our classroom months ago."

"The premier just last week finally expressed an interest in maybe forming a committee to talk about classroom reform. I can understand why parents and students are so worried. They clearly are wondering why the premier is now making an 11th hour conversion to listening when that should have been the starting point and not the ending point of all of this."

NDP blames Bill 148

NDP Leader Gary Burrillblames the impasse on the government giving itself the power to impose a settlement on public sector union by adopting Bill 148. The law, which is not yet in force, would imposed a wage settlement less generous than the last two deals offered teachers.

"I think the original mistake back in 2015 was to have placed the whole teachers' negotiation under the long, dark, disrespectful cloud of Bill 148."