Education Minister George Abbott took the unusual step Wednesday of holding a Twitter town hall to address concerns about Bill 22, his proposed legislation to end the ongoing teachers’ strike.
In the one-hour midday event, more than 300 tweets came in under the #bced hashtag. Minister Abbott himself contributed more than 50 tweets.
The twitter chat came on the second day of voting by B.C. teachers on whether to walk off the job in response to Bill 22. The ongoing contract negotiations between the government and the BCTF dominated the chatter as much as the bill itself.
User Joanna Larson tweeted, “Bill22 politicking by lib’s using the futures of students in desperate attempt to be re-elected next spring.”
The tone was typical of the chat, which mostly saw the minister responding to criticism of Bill 22 and of the government’s handling of the negotiations.
“The net-zero mandate (for contract mediation) is a huge stumbling bock,” tweeted user @adssit.
Abbott responded, “Net-zero hasn’t been a stumbling block for 130 agreements signed w/ public sector unions.”
Though Abbott stopped responding at 1 p.m., the scheduled end time, dozens of users continued to tweet the hashtag in the hours that followed.
Bill 22 was introduced to the legislature on Tuesday, the same day that the Labour Relations Board approved the teachers’ right to stage a limited walkout. Pending the outcome of a vote, teachers could walk out as early as Monday, according to the BCTF website.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
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