B.C. to give parents $40 a day for each child if teachers’ strike continues

VICTORIA – The B.C. government is making plans to give parents $40 a day for every child under 13 if a teachers' strike continues into the start of the school year.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong says parents will be able to register online for the subsidy, which could be used to get tutoring for their children, to explore other educational opportunities or to for pay for day care.

He says the money would be funded from the government's savings of $12 million each day that teachers are on strike and for as long as the labour dispute continues.

De Jong says cheques would likely not be issued until October and that the program would not be retroactive to cover days when teachers were off the job in June.

Little progress has been made in ending the conflict that put half a million students out of school for almost two weeks before the usual start of the summer break.

The province has repeatedly said wage demands by the teachers' union are outside its "affordability zone" and far beyond what other public-sector workers have received.