Alberta Legislature in session, image via https://www.assembly.ab.ca
EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government will table back-to-work legislation on Monday to end the provincewide teachers’ strike that has kept more than 750,000 students out of classrooms since early October.
The Back to School Act, also known as Bill 2, will be the first legislation debated when the legislature resumes. Finance Minister Nate Horner said the province hopes to have teachers and students back in class as early as Monday.
The move follows nearly three weeks of job action by roughly 51,000 teachers from Alberta’s public, separate and francophone school systems. Their contract expired Aug. 31, 2024, and talks with the province broke down last month over wages, class sizes and supports for complex student needs.
Smith said the legislation is necessary to restore learning after negotiations stalled. “The precondition has to be getting kids back to school and so far, they’ve been unwilling to do that,” she said at a news conference. “When you get to a point where irreparable harm is being caused to kids, that’s where we have to draw a line.”
The province has offered a 12 per cent wage increase over four years and pledged to hire 3,000 additional teachers. The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) has rejected that proposal, saying it fails to address classroom complexity and resource shortages.
In a statement, the ATA said it is aware of the government’s plans but that “its full implications for teachers are unclear at this time” until the bill is tabled. ATA president Jason Schilling told CBC News the union will review the legislation and consider next steps, which could include legal action.
Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi called the forthcoming bill “the biggest abuse of democratic rights in Alberta’s history,” accusing the government of changing procedural rules to speed up its passage.
Thousands of teachers rallied outside the legislature Thursday as the fall session began. Many carried potatoes, a reference to Smith’s earlier remark that “there’s more than one way to peel a potato” when describing the government’s options for resolving the dispute.
Smith has emphasized that there is still time to reach a deal before the legislation takes effect. “It’s not to say that they won’t have an agreement with us in the next 72 hours,” she said, adding that the government remains open to a realistic offer from the union.
The Alberta teachers’ strike, now in its 18th day, is among the longest in the province’s history. The longest teachers’ strike in Canada took place in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1980 and lasted 52 days.
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