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Alberta’s first province-wide teachers’ strike has drawn national attention, exposing deep tensions between educators’ demands for fair compensation and the government’s drive for fiscal restraint. With more than 51,000 teachers on strike, classrooms across the province remain closed, and Premier Danielle Smith’s government prepares back-to-work legislation. Here’s what’s really at stake—and where both sides stand.
The Dispute at a Glance
The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), representing over 51,000 public, Catholic, and francophone teachers, initiated a province-wide strike on October 6, 2025—the first full withdrawal of services in its history. Collective bargaining began more than 18 months ago, but talks broke down after the ATA tabled a comprehensive proposal on October 14, which the government rejected as unaffordable, estimating an added cost of nearly $2 billion beyond current budget projections.
As of October 26, no new bargaining sessions are scheduled. Premier Danielle Smith has pledged to introduce back-to-work legislation on October 27 if no deal is reached, and her government has signaled readiness to invoke the notwithstanding clause to preempt legal challenges.
Core Issues and Divergent Positions
The ATA argues that chronic underfunding, rising classroom complexity, and stagnant wages threaten teacher retention and student outcomes. The government counters that its funding model already reflects enrollment growth, claiming the union’s proposal exceeds fiscal limits without introducing new revenue sources, such as a provincial sales tax.
Both sides cite inflation and federal immigration policy as aggravating factors but assign responsibility differently.
Key Positions Compared
| Issue | ATA Position and Demands | Government Position and Offers |
|---|---|---|
| Salary Increases | 15% compounded over three years to offset inflation (20–25% since the last agreement) and keep wages competitive. | 12% over four years (3% annually), plus a $4,000 one-time retention bonus; claims this would make Alberta teachers the second-highest paid in Canada. |
| Class Sizes and Complexity | Enforceable class caps (20–23 students max, K–9) and 200 minutes of guaranteed weekly prep time for high school teachers. | No mandatory caps; promises to hire 3,000 new teachers and 1,500 educational assistants, citing federal immigration policies as the main driver of class complexity. |
| Educational Supports and Funding | $2.6 billion in stable, dedicated funding for mental health, professional development, and special needs support. | $2.6 billion in base funding tied to enrollment, alongside over 130 new schools; focuses on infrastructure and hiring without raising taxes. |
| Negotiation Process and Strike | Rejects mediation as overly restrictive; frames strike as a lawful escalation after failed talks. Will adopt “work-to-rule” if legislated back. | Labels union demands as inflexible; offers enhanced mediation if the strike ends immediately. Proceeding with back-to-work legislation to “protect students.” |
Escalation and Public Response
What began as rotating regional walkouts has now become a province-wide shutdown, impacting hundreds of thousands of students and families. Public sentiment remains split—polls show strong support for smaller class sizes but growing concern about prolonged disruptions to schooling.
The ATA has twice rejected the government’s 12% wage proposal, calling it insufficient given inflationary pressures. Finance Minister Nate Horner maintains the offer exceeds adjustments made under the previous NDP government and aligns with broader public-sector restraint measures.
What Comes Next
With back-to-work legislation imminent, Alberta faces a pivotal test of both fiscal discipline and labor relations. The proposed bill would compel a return to work while imposing fines for defiance. ATA leadership warns that if the law passes, teachers will respond through work-to-rule actions and broader public advocacy campaigns.
Observers note that this standoff could galvanize other public-sector unions, creating a wave of coordinated opposition to legislative back-to-work measures across Canada. Whether a negotiated settlement or legal confrontation emerges first may determine the tone of public-sector labor relations for years to come.
References and Data Sources
- Alberta Teachers’ Association. “Moving forward with bargaining.” October 15, 2025.
https://teachers.ab.ca/news/moving-forward-bargaining - Alberta Teachers’ Association. “ATA rejects government’s biased mediation proposal.” October 17, 2025.
https://teachers.ab.ca/news/ata-rejects-governments-biased-mediation-proposal - Alberta Teachers’ Association. “Bill 2 won’t fix the crisis in Alberta classrooms.” October 24, 2025.
https://teachers.ab.ca/news/bill-2-wont-fix-crisis-alberta-classrooms - CBC News. “Province will consider back-to-work legislation for Alberta teachers if no deal.” October 15, 2025.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/nate-horner-alberta-teachers-strike-talks-legislation-9.6939589 - CBC News. “Back-to-work legislation to end Alberta teachers’ strike coming Monday, says premier.” October 23, 2025.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/back-to-work-legislation-to-end-alberta-teachers-strike-coming-monday-says-premier-9.6949884 - Calgary Herald. “Alberta teachers’ union has proposal for province amidst strike.” October 15, 2025.
https://calgaryherald.com/news/teachers-union-contract-proposal-alberta-teachers-strike - Edmonton Journal. “ATA angered by back-to-work legislation, but still considering options.” October 24, 2025.
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-teachers-have-harsh-words-for-the-upc - Nate Horner (@NateHornerAB) on X (Twitter), October 2025 posts detailing government offer.
https://x.com/natehornerab - Red FM Calgary. “ATA President Jason Schilling calls for smaller class sizes and fair wages as teacher strike talks continue.” October 16, 2025.
https://calgary.redfm.ca/ata-president-jason-schilling-calls-for-smaller-class-sizes-and-fair-wages-as-teacher-strike-talks-continue/
“MLA Grant Hunter, the province’s associate minister of red tape reduction, wrote, “Wernher von Braun said, ‘To conquer the universe you’d have to solve two problems: gravity and red tape.’ We’ve made it clear that we are committed to reducing red tape in Alberta. Lots more to come…”
The quote came from an opinion piece linked by Hunter in his tweet.”
“Lori Williams, a political scientist with Mount Royal University, said in the age of social media, it’s important to be careful about sharing a quote unless you know the source.
“To simply repeat a quotation without naming the source might look a little bit less problematic. But to actually say the name of a Nazi officer and then quote it, highly problematic.”
Williams said the tweeted quote may be viewed against the backdrop of other comments Hunter has made.
“And it would be a little bit different had it not been that he … made comments about the superior stock about the people in his constituency, and actually used the word Aryan, misspelled it,” Williams said, referring to a 2010 letter to the editor Hunter submitted to the Cardston Temple City Star.
“He’s got to be very careful about using language associated with Nazis.”
The Taber-Warner MLA is no stranger to controversy.
In 2016 Hunter was one of eight then-Wildrose MLAs who signed a column comparing the carbon tax to the genocide of millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s. The party later apologized.
In 2018, he apologized after comparing the NDP’s 2015 election victory to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people, the Taber Times reported.
Williams said his accumulated comments could pose a political problem.”
The very best part of this story is that it is going to probably pass away quickly, and this particular politician will remain safely in government.
Thank you again Alberta Voters for gracing our province with the exemplary batch of politicians.
Rachel Notley being sworn into office.
Lesson one in Alberta politics – Don’t fuck with private oil revenue.
Lesson two in Alberta politics – There is no lesson two, please refer to lesson one for all concerns about governance.
Full marks to Ed Stelmach for attempting to get the public’s meagre spoon into firehouse of wealth that is flowing out of this province. He had a Royalty Review and everything. It cost him his job because he violated rule Number 1.
“Now Arb,” says the gentle reader, “Why are you talking about Ed Stelmach and the Royalty Review in a post with Danielle Smith in the title?”. And I say here, “Eager padawans be patient – to understand the present, one must look to the past.
Alberta politics, like most politics, are insipidly structured to make the average person not want to care about what happens as long as the status quo is maintained. The status quo in Alberta is structuring the laws and society around the model that makes it easiest for the oil companies to extract wealth from the province. The oil companies make out like Scrooge McDuck taking their heady profits out of province and straight to the offshore bank accounts while leaving the population scratching in the tailings-pond for the pittance we call “royalties” here in Texas North. This state of affairs is nothing new (see Lesson One) in Alberta.
What amuses me is when Ms.Smith of the oh so populist corporatist Wild Rose Party finds a microphone (usually the Sun chain of media, as they do their best to be fox news north) and goes after the government for its spending. Ms. Smith says:
“The PC legacy of waste and mismanagement is everywhere. Huge salary hikes, new MLA offices, handing corporations billions of taxpayer dollars, and accepting paychecks for doing no work are only some instances in the long list of PC waste that has come to define this government as out of touch and only out for themselves.”
So, Ms.Smith is going after the government for handing corporations billions of dollars when it was those same corporations that gave her so much darned money in the first place. Getting all sanctimonious about the corporate pigs at the trough is rich irony as the Wild Rose Party exists to make said trough wider and deeper as soon as they are “elected”. The Socialist Bullet puts is succinctly with regards to recent election in Alberta:
“The Globe and Mail editors were reflecting the point of view of big sections of Corporate Alberta. Those who travelled in the rarefied air of that section of Alberta, were very comfortable with a victory by either Wildrose or the Tories. Both parties received corporate donations running to the hundreds of thousands of dollars, in the case of Wildrose almost reaching one million dollars. […]
Individual voters take our vote very seriously. We care which party is elected – which is why, of course, there are election campaigns in the first place. Very few people walk about the streets sporting buttons for two parties. People pick one, and cast their ballot. But corporate Alberta had a sweet situation. A victory by either the Tories or Wildrose would be fine. Under either party, it would be business as usual.”
Business as usual. That folks is the core of why the Wild Rose Party of Alberta is stuck. It is because their plan is just more of the same (with double plus exploitation of the public trust and resources), but with Bigotry and Lakes of Fire. How do you make selling the people of Alberta down the river more palatable to your “populist base”? You go after government waste and corruption. Going after Alison Redford’s sister and Ms.Redford’s expense accounts makes for great media attention, and might just distract people from the fact that the Wild Rose Party would fleece the people of Alberta for the benefit of the oil companies at a rate that makes any personal expense oversights of the Redford’s laughable in comparison.
The Socialist bullet notes:
It is no exaggeration, then, to say that both parties are parties of big oil. For big oil, the key is continuing the rush to pull oil out of the mud of Northern Alberta, regardless of the environmental consequences. We dodged the bullet on a government of social conservative dinosaurs. But we entrenched in power another majority government enthusiastically committed to Alberta’s boiling mud economy, absolutely focused on a systematic increase in the exploitation of the tar sands.
Remember Lesson Number One. – Just a piece of advice Ms.Redford, because let me assure you Ms.Smith has it tattooed on her Executive Assistant’s forehead.
In the fiefdom known as the province of Alberta, the current right-wing King is stepping down. Ed Stelmach for glancing once to often toward the center has been ousted by the more radical elements(?) of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party. But really, does it matter? Certainly the fracture between the PC’s (right) and the Wild Rose Party (further right) will allow some electoral fresh air into the next election.
Doubtful at best.
Thanks to an amazing job of jerrymandering the rural/urban ridings and a political climate laced with near terminal apathy, Alberta is in line for yet another Oil pandering, business friendly (read raping the public-trust friendly) conservative premier. Full marks to the CBC for attempting to make people care about the upcoming election, going through the motions has never sounded so exciting.
“Ted Morton’s appeal to supporters of the Wildrose Alliance could lead to split loyalties for the province’s federal Tories The province’s former finance minister, who resigned from cabinet in order to seek the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party, said he plans to bring Wildrose Alliance members back into the Progressive Conservative fold.”
Isn’t that cute! They are arguing who gets to wear the boot that continues to stomp on the face of ordinary Albertans. I mean there is the serious consideration of who is going to run the province for the benefit of the oil conglomerates and business, plus differing influence peddling price structures are in place to ensure the correct business policy becomes Alberta Government Policy.
“There isn’t going to be any chance at all that the Wildrose is simply going to fold into the PC Party,” Smith said in an interview broadcast Saturday on CBC Radio’s The House. “People, myself included, were very hopeful that Ted would be able to lead a movement from within the PC Party to get them back on track. And I think that what we’ve seen is he’s not been effective doing that.
This could spell trouble for federal Tories in the province, some of whom have been quietly supporting Wildrose to the detriment of the provincial PCs. But now that Morton hopes to lead the PC Party, those federal Conservatives may have to pick a side.”
Oh the Drama! Which brand of proto-fascism will make it into the Great Leaders Chair? I can only bitterly contemplate this poisonous choice and wonder when if, ever, the population of Alberta will finally have enough of one party rule.
The amount of fraternization between the Alberta Government and the Oil Industry always makes decisions such as these seem questionable. The idea behind this three million dollar fine is more of a public relations ploy than anything
Making moonscapes here on Earth in the name or resource extraction.
else. Consider that Government gets to look good for ‘protecting the environment’ and the company also gets to be thoroughly ‘punished’ for its environmental indiscretions. Everyone wins! Well except for the wildlife, the Athabasca river, the people dying of cancer because of the emissions from the tar sands the atmosphere… Well, the right people are winning gosh darn it!
“Oilsands giant Syncrude Canada will pay a $3-million penalty for the deaths of 1,600 ducks in one of its toxic tailings ponds in April 2008.
Syncrude lawyers and federal and provincial prosecutors presented the deal Friday morning in provincial court in St. Albert, Alta., and Judge Ken Tjosvold accepted it.”
Woo, the cordial relations between Alberta Government and the oil industry. See, they can work together!
“Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert wouldn’t comment specifically on the court decision but said it sends a message to industry that the province will take action if environmental policies are breached.
“This whole process … shows that if there is a breach of an environmental regulation or legislation, that we are prepared to take action,” he said. “We did and the process unfolded and this is the culmination of it.”
In Vancouver, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the fine was the largest in Canadian history for an environmental offence.
“I think this shows that we have strong environmental laws in Canada and that we will enforce them,” Prentice said.”
One would think that strong environmental laws would have stopped the creation of huge tailings ponds in the first
The cost of doing business.
place. Again though, in the acceptable discourse, companies are ‘learning lessons’ and governments are ‘protecting the environment’.
CBC should be commended though as they did find room in their article to mention another point of view.
“A $3-million fine to a multi-billion dollar company equates to a slap on the wrist,” he [Mike Hudema of Greenpeace] said.
“This doesn’t send a very strong message to the industry that Alberta or the federal government is really serious about enforcing our legislation or that crimes like this can’t happen in the future.”
Exactly. What this amounts to is a non-fine for non-important issue. The correct notes have been played, the conductor has gesticulated in the appropriate way for the appeasement of the crowd. The hall goes dark, and it is business as usual here in Alberta.
I look southward and see the swirling Health Care debate in the United Stated and (still) marvel at the public system 
we have set up here in Canada. Yet, the Alberta Tories seem to think that Health Care is a bad thing. I quote from David Eggen’s Op-Ed from the Edmonton Journal:
“ […] As it happens, health expenditures in relation to gross domestic product in Alberta have stayed at between five and seven per cent for the last 15 years. We continue to compare favourably to other jurisdictions. The Canadian average is about 10 per cent, France and Switzerland are at about 11 per cent and the United States is at 15 per cent. To me, this sounds pretty sustainable.
This helps to reveal the real agenda behind Liepert’s and Duckett’s draconian actions. It is not about “saving medicare” or responding to the recession. People don’t stop getting sick when the economy is weak.
The Alberta government’s real plan is to destabilize our health-care system so it can implement private, for-profit experiments to “fix” medicare. They are purposefully breaking the health-care system so they can hire private contractors to repair it at inflated prices. […]”
Eggen is right on the money when it comes to the model of first breaking the public system, and then rebuilding it 
with private contractors reaping the profits. They tried that in Bolivia; it did not work out so well.
The problem here is the Zombie Electorate which would happily vote a frakking can of beans into office as long as it represented the Progressive Conservatives.
If you would like a non governmental view of what is going on with the Health Care system in Alberta check out the Friends of Medicare Web page.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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