Alberta teachers and students returned to classrooms for the first time since the teachers went on strike Oct. 6.Sarah B Groot/The Globe and Mail
Alberta students returned to school on Wednesday, marking the conclusion of a contentious three-week teachers’ strike that ended only after the provincial government legislated them back to work.
But after rumblings from sympathetic unions that the back-to-work legislation, which invoked the notwithstanding clause and imposed a collective agreement on the teachers, would lead to a general strike, Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said they would only take that step “if necessary.”
“It’s why the possibility of a general strike is now firmly on the table,” he said. The federation had promised an “unprecedented response” if Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government used the notwithstanding clause to protect its legislation from court challenges.
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“We are not going to pull the pin today, so you can relax. But we are starting the journey.”
On Monday, the United Conservative government tabled and swiftly passed its Back to School Act and included the notwithstanding clause. In doing so, about 51,000 striking public, Catholic and francophone teachers were forced to accept the collective agreement that almost all of them had rejected more than a month earlier. Around 750,000 students had been out of classes since the strike began on Oct. 6.
The deal being imposed by the government would expire in 2028 and won’t be negotiable until then. It provides teachers with a 12-per-cent salary raise over four years and commits the government to hiring 3,000 teachers and 1,500 educational assistants.
There are no provisions for teacher-student ratios or class-size caps, which the teachers’ union insisted on including in an agreement throughout bargaining. The Alberta Teachers’ Association dismissed a government offer to enter enhanced mediation because Alberta’s proposal said those issues would not be up for negotiation.
The government has also committed to appointing a task force to implement recommendations on aggression in the classroom and addressing complexities, such as learning disabilities and non-English-speaking learners. On Wednesday, the province said it would start collecting data on class sizes and composition for the first time since 2019. School boards will be required to provide the data by Nov. 24 and it will be made public by January, the province said.
On Wednesday morning, as teachers and students across Alberta returned to classes, it felt like the first day of school all over again.
The scene outside Wîhkwêntôwin School in inner-city Edmonton looked like any other school day. Children held their parents’ hands as they took cover under umbrellas from the rain.
Striking Alberta teachers and supporters wave signs outside Rogers Place in Edmonton in mid-October. The agreement being imposed on teachers by the government would expire in 2028.Aaron Sousa/The Canadian Press
Candace Rogers Haughian and her two boys, Wyatt and Tyson, showed up to school wearing red to signal their support for teachers. The brothers had homemade cards reading “I heart teachers.”
“Even though we’re happy to be back in school, we’re very disappointed with the way that we’re going back,” said Ms. Rogers Haughian, who stayed home with the boys during the strike.
“It’s affected us financially. It’s affected our routine in the household. It’s like we’re starting over from square one ... we’re coming back with the exact same deal teachers didn’t want.”
Rory Brown said his two kids in Grade 4 missed their friends and teachers over the past month, but noted he’s “disgusted” with how the strike ended.
“This is an inner-city school as well as a beautiful program, and they’re all doing their very best to try their darndest. But this is gross,” Mr. Brown said shortly after dropping off his kids.
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For many parents, Monday was their first day in a quiet home since the beginning of the month. Shelley Wiart, a mother of three public-school children in Calgary, finally had space to work on her master’s thesis that’s due in early December.
“Today was the first day where I sat down and I really did meaningful work,” Ms. Wiart said. But she said the government’s decision was upsetting and she worries about teacher morale and how that affects students.
“If I was a teacher right now, I would be extremely angry. My daughter said she was worried about the morale of teachers and I think she’s kind of hit the nail on the head.”
School boards will be tasked with making up for lost instructional hours – a number that depends on when schools started the year and how many hours they allocate every day. Medicine Hat Public School Division, for example, will now have classes on four days previously tapped for professional development days.
Premier Smith wrote in a letter sent to parents that the decision to force teachers back to school wasn’t a simple one.
“We are turning the page. We are moving forward. And we are doing it together, with you,” she wrote.
Ms. Smith’s letter lists changes her government will undertake for the education system, including the commitment to collecting classroom-level data to understand staffing and student needs.
It also includes a commitment to “depoliticize the classroom” in which she writes her government is “committed to keeping politics and ideology out of the classroom.”