Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I want to follow up with the sorts of questions that my colleague from Yellowknife Centre had, because this is a communications problem again. It's not just a communications problem with the public. It's a communications problem with MLAs.
The MOU was signed off as part of the negotiation process. I get that. Some people have said that the reason it was done that way was to avoid having to pay teachers more, and to set an example for other negotiations that are going on. That's the kind of a deal. I don't -- whether that is true or not, you folks can laugh -- it was on the radio earlier this week. Maybe you don't listen to the radio anymore. In any event, people are talking about that in this way.
The MOU is signed. Then, there is a technical briefing for the media. The MLAs still haven't been told about this. Now, we've got a bill before us to actually change the instructional hours without a lot of evidenced-based decision-making that I can see that is going on here.
Yes, our instructional hours are higher than some other jurisdictions, but are we still going to have Alberta recognition? The Minister said in the House when he was asked, "I'll have to get back to you, and I'll have to check to see that." Two days later, the same Minister gets up and says that he had a meeting with the Minister of Education of Alberta, and that things seem to be okay. I didn't quite get it. The communications around this with the Regular MLAs have been confusing at best, and we've got a bill now before us without any evidence of whether this is going to be a good move or not.
Look, teachers, they work very hard, and hats off to these guys. They deserve everything they can get, but when they're at the negotiation table trying to get a deal that they can sell to their membership, that's the only kind of concession that they can get from this government, that is what they are going to go for. Hats off for them in getting that.
The way that this has been communicated to Regular MLAs, let alone the public, has been a disaster. What is the Minister going to do about this? We haven't even had a technical briefing around this yet. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I'm getting worked up because the other side doesn't seem to think that there is a problem, as usual. Thank you, Mr. Chair.