In Tasha Ausman’s biology class, students raise caterpillars to monarch butterflies, then release them. In the science of grade 10, she has teenagers turning gears and connecting rods into mini engineering feats.
For the final evaluation of a recent forensic unit, the teacher, the Gatineau teacher, organized a simulated scene of the crime, recruited colleagues as witnesses and made the students investigate the “shattered” courtyard to demonstrate what they learned.
Ausman knows how practical learning involves students and deepens the understanding of the curriculum. But he is concerned that the strict directives are already murky “buy local” presented in the midst of tariff agitation with the United States will prevent teachers from obtaining the supplies they trust for students.
In March, the message that was reduced to Ausman and fellow educators in his Board was that the purchases now must come from retailers in the province with shop windows, a directive of the Ministry of Education that he had officials of the Board who told schools that his hands were tied, he said.
“I cannot enter a store and buy a liter of certain chemical products or a frog cube for dissection, or even some of the pieces we use for mandatory engineering projects,” said Ausman, noting that some items are not available in Quebec or, if they are, they can be much more expensive due to the limited number of local suppliers.
Some orders that were on their way to this spring had to be canceled after the local purchase directive fell, he said. “We had to change the curricular plans in the middle of the year.”
The Quebec teacher, Tasha Ausman, shares the materials of the science class, including frogs for dissection and construction gears, which says that she and her classmates will have problems to obtain the most restrictive acquisition rules designed to support local businesses and avoid US tariffs.
The acquisition rules change with the War of the US rate.
CBC News communicated with regional governments throughout Canada to ask if, given the recent context of the new US tariffs, the acquisition rules have changed so that schools favor Canadian sources.
At the end of February, Quebec Hardening public sector purchases Through online platforms, one more step in a Preexisting campaign for local support. In a statement to CBC, the Government reiterated those hardened rules and pointed out that public bodies (including schools) “must favor assets, services and construction suppliers of QUBEC” for acquisitions below a certain amount of dollars.
However, he indicated more latitude for purchases above a certain amount of dollar, with public organizations “remembered to systematically favor Quebec and Canadian purchases” and support “small companies based in Quebec and other places in Canada.”
But Ausman says that the directive is still confusing for all, from officials of the school board to the teachers themselves.
“It really puts responsibility in the meetings, the finance officers of the school and then the teachers to decipher this language, when the business of our work is not really deciphering acquisition strategies for the Ministry of Education,” he said.
The responses from other provinces and territories indicated flexibility in acquisition policies.
Alberta and Manitoba, for example, urge school boards to prioritize local suppliers, products and services, while Saskatchewan says that school divisions are encouraged “to avoid any purchase of US companies or US products, when possible.”
British Columbia says he is eliminating US purchases in favor of Canadians or non -American. The Northwest territories are also doing that, and they are prioritizing local exits whenever possible.
PEI is encouraging school authorities to prioritize local purchase, while Terranova and Labrador commit to “support local and Canadian products when possible.”
Nueva Scotia has limited the number of schools that can buy from US companies. New Brunswick has banned new US contracts.
Meanwhile, Ontario is restricting public bodies to buy AmericanWith certain exceptions (urgent cases, for example, or if an American source is the only option).
Buy Canadian policies already established for some
The Ontario directive fell in March just as Several school boards voted to adopt Purchasing-Canadia policies, although it is generally an established practice, according to Stephanie Donaldson, executive director of Toronto, of the Association of Boards of Public Schools of Ontario.
“The teachers, if worried, should talk to the officials of the school board,” he said.
Donaldson feels that the acquisition experts of the Provincial Board and school would help educators obtain the supplies they require “despite the challenges we face from the south.”
This local thrust is not irrazonable at this time tense, since “if it helps to put dollars in the pockets of Canadian companies … That is a victory,” said Mike Wake, superintendent of Alberta Wetaskiwin regional public schools.
However, the trick is how to make that happen, he said from Wetaskiwin, a small school division located south of Edmonton.
The school purchase must balance a series of factors, Wake explained, “operational urgency” and legal considerations to “take the dollar of public taxpayers as far as we can [to support] Student learning “.
He pointed out that the schools that obtain what they need is different from the purchases of groceries only for articles made in Canada; Sometimes, a student -based student information system. Or the US school bus supplier may be the best option.
“Our government has been fantastic when saying ‘do what you can’, but with the understanding that there will sometimes you will not always buy Canadian,” Wake said.
As I will be for the commercial war of the president of the United States, Donald Trump feeds a ‘Canadian’ movement, the National Marketing professor asks Marketing Grant Packard to help navigate the confusion of the supply line so that Canadians can keep the elbows in the payment line.
Back in Quebec, Ausman supports a less restrictive policy, since it already favors national sellers.
He worries that the practical learning laboratories that favor and other school offers are cut if teachers cannot obtain the required materials, from scientific specimens to trumpets of students and laptops. It is also a concern that educators feel obliged to pay their pocket for supplies.
Ultimately, she wants decision makers to put more consideration on where you together with liquidity problems can obtain what they need.
“If you are going to intervene in spending and acquisition, you must also provide a solution to the problem,” he said.
