NDP says teachers’ strike would never have happened under its leadership
EDMONTON — As students return to class after Alberta’s provincewide teachers’ strike, the Opposition NDP says the disruption could have been avoided entirely under its leadership.
Amanda Chapman, the NDP’s education critic, says a New Democrat government would have negotiated in good faith and reached a deal before tensions escalated.
She says the United Conservative Party had two years to make an agreement and instead forced teachers to vote a second time on a deal they had already rejected. Chapman accuses Premier Danielle Smith of “engineering” the strike.
Chapman says an NDP government would have addressed class size and classroom complexity, restored class-size reporting, and ensured Alberta did not have the lowest per-student funding in the country.
She says the previous NDP government built or modernized nearly 250 schools in four years, compared to less than one third of that work under the UCP in six years.
If a strike had still occurred, Chapman says the NDP would not have used the notwithstanding clause and instead relied on mediation, binding arbitration or a Disputes Inquiry Board.
The teachers’ strike ended after the government passed back-to-work legislation to return 750,000 students and 51,000 teachers to classrooms.
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