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When it comes to the stated intentions of the Ministry of Education in wanting to reset its less-than-optimal relationship with the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, don’t expect STF President Patrick Maze to be drinking the Kool-Aid.

This is Maze’s fifth term as President. In that time he has seen scant evidence of the government’s willingness to embark on a new path together in seeking education reform or providing more of an opportunity for teacher voice to be heard. The current stalled provincial collective bargaining process is a poignant example as far as Maze is concerned.

When Randy Schmaltz, Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, looks back on 2019, he is buoyed by some of the major accomplishments of the past 12 months. It’s when he contemplates the future that he is troubled.

For Schmaltz, the “real moment of accomplishment” in the past year was the release of the Re-Imagine Education report, which the STF participated as one of 19 diverse partners from throughout the province, culminating in the 12 Actions for Education.

There was Saskatoon educator Nat Banting playing a rousing game of mini sticks at his Dalmeny home with his wife Andra and their two young children, Henry and Sinley.

Then he received an email on his phone indicating he had been chosen as the winner of the 2019 Rosenthal Prize for Innovation and Inspiration in Math Teaching.

As the first three graduates of the Post-Degree Certificate in English as an Additional Language Education offered at the University of Saskatchewan, Danielle Clatney, Christopher Caswell and Patricia Hicks were unanimous in agreeing that they had made the right choice to complete this newly offered course.

That being said, even if for Caswell and Hicks, they find themselves in different schools this year with quite different student enrolments than at their former locales.

Last fall, Canada’s Minister of Finance approved a request from Great-West Life Assurance Company, London Life Insurance Company and Canada Life Assurance Company to amalgamate and form one large company under the Canada Life Assurance Company banner. The amalgamation took effect on January 1, 2020.