Christy Clark says teachers' court win is opportunity to 'invest in kids'

Premier Christy Clark says she sees alandmark Supreme Court of Canada decision that sided with the B.C.teachers' union over the province ina long fighton classroom conditions asan opportunity to invest in education.

"It's a chance for usto talk about how to invest more money in kids," Clark said in a weekend interview.

• BCTF wins Supreme Court battle over class size and composition
• Timeline: Nearly 15 years of court battles between province and BCTF

Thedecisionended a court battle that began in 2002, when the province used legislation to stripteachers of their right to bargain class size and composition. Christy Clark was the education minister at the time.

The B.C.Teachers' Federation challenged the constitutionality of that legislation, and theB.C. Supreme Court sided with the union.

Thatdecisionwas overturned on appeal. But Thursday's Supreme Court of Canada decision marksthe final ruling on the case in favour of the union.

It means the province mustrestore staffing,such asteachers and librarians,to 2002 levels.

Province expected ruling, Clark says

The teachers' union puts theprice tag for that restoration at up to$300 million.

The province has not provided figures on how much it is prepared to spend, but Clark said the government anticipated that a court decision mightfavourtheteachers' unionand set aside $100 million.

Clark said negotiations with the teachers' union will start soon.

"The idea that we want classrooms to be the right size, that we want more special needs teachers in classrooms,now is a chance to sit down and decide how we are going to make that happen," Clark said.

"Kids are only going to do better when we put more resources in."

With files from Richard Zussman