VICTORIA - British Columbia's teachers union expects more teachers in classrooms after winning a 14-year legal fight over bargaining rights on Thursday in Canada's highest court.

Glen Hansman, president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation, said the Supreme Court of Canada decision means the province must start hiring more teachers and classroom specialists, estimating it will cost the government $250 million to $300 million a year to bring in the additional resources.

"It's going to mean that there's going to be ... a whole bunch of teachers' positions restored in B.C. schools, a lot more frontline services for kids in B.C. and much better work life for our members in a very tumultuous school year of change," he said in an interview.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong said the government wants to act quickly to implement the decision to include the "fiscal consequences" in February's budget.

"We want to roll up our sleeves and get to work immediately," he said.

De Jong did not estimate how much the ruling could cost, other than to say he plans to make room in the budget.

He recently forecast a budget surplus of almost $2 billion and the Supreme Court case was cited as a risk factor in previous budget statements.

The province first imposed legislation in 2002 that removed teachers' ability to bargain class size and the number of students with special needs in each classroom.

The high court overturned a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling that found the province did not violate teachers' rights to negotiate the issues in their collective agreement.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled the law was unconstitutional in 2011, and the province imposed a new law the following year. Similar to the previous legislation, it restricted school boards' power to determine staffing levels and establish the size and composition of classes or how many teacher assistants can be hired per student in a school.

The dispute led to an acrimonious strike in 2014. The labour dispute resulted in a negotiated settlement that expires in 2019 and included a $100-million fund to address grievances related to class size and composition.

Government officials said at a background briefing the decision does not reopen the entire contract but does restore the class-size and composition provisions that were deleted in 2002.

The court voted 7-2 in favour of the federation and said it would release a written judgment within 48 hours.

NDP Leader John Horgan accused the government of shortchanging public education for more than a decade.

"Think about it for a minute, that from 2002 to now, kids have started in kindergarten and graduated only knowing underfunded classrooms," he said.

The president of the B.C. Federation of Labour said there was jubilation at the Supreme Court following the ruling.

"Teachers went on strike for this language," said Irene Lanzinger. "They gave up salary increases for the class-size language. They won that through collective bargaining and this decision strengthens our rights to collective bargaining."

News from © The Canadian Press, 2016