Certainly. It is alarming that teachers are spending out of their own pockets for their protective equipment to go to work each day, but it's nothing new for teachers across Canada. We have always financed our own classrooms, although we were never told that's what we would be doing when we were hired. Lots of times we don't have the necessary books and consumables that we need to do our job as teachers. When COVID hit and we were told that we would be going back to school, we knew we would probably be supplying PPEs and hand sanitizers, and whatever was necessary for us to do our jobs well. It's not what we should be doing—that should be supplied by our provinces and territories—but we can't see our students suffer either.
I think we need an accountability mechanism for where the money is supposed to go. It was a very broad target: to be used for COVID and getting students back to school. There were no consultations with our teacher organizations to say, “This is what our plan is for the money. Do you have any suggestions? What would you say that teachers would find most important and most helpful so that they could deliver their curriculum well?”
We need that door open for consultations. We need some type of accountability mechanism. The government has generously given funding for classrooms, but it has not trickled down. When the teacher organizations across Canada have asked questions, they don't get a response or any type of answer. I think, moving forward, government has to make sure that provinces and territories are accountable for that money. It was slated for a specific use, but we're not seeing that translated into our classrooms.