The Alberta government is ordering thousands of striking teachers back to work and imposing a four-year collective contract via new legislation backed by the use of the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to shield it from legal challenges.
Finance Minister Nate Horner introduced Bill 2, the Back to School Act, in the legislature early Monday evening.
It seeks to end the strike taken by more than 51,000 teachers who have been off the job since Oct. 6 in a dispute over wages, resources, as well as classroom size and complexities.
The government has outlined several procedural mechanisms it plans to use to ensure the bill is passed promptly, with Premier Danielle Smith stating she expects students and teachers to return to classrooms on Wednesday.
“Our intention is to pass this legislation immediately and end the strike by the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA),” Smith said.
“We’ve seen how this strike has impacted our students, and we know from the COVID-19 pandemic how quickly and severely learning loss can impact children when they’re not in the classroom.”
The bill legislates a new collective contract that will run retroactively from Sept. 1, 2024, until Aug. 31, 2028.
The terms of that contract are based on those in a tentative agreement thatwas rejected by nearly 90 per cent of teachersin September. That proposed deal provided a 12 per cent salary increase over four years, additional market adjustments of up to 17 per cent for most teachers, and the hiring of 3,000 teachers and 1,500 educational assistants.
The ATA has said those terms wouldn’t sufficiently improve salaries that have lagged behind inflation for more than a decade.
The government is also pledging to restore reporting data on classroom size and composition, something Alberta has not done since 2019, as part of a task force designed to address those issues.
Smith’s office announced later on Monday that the premier was leaving later in the day on a 10-day trip to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to promote the province’s energy and agriculture industries.
Postmedia has contacted the ATA seeking comment on the new legislation.
On Friday, the union acknowledged the coming back-to-work legislation but declined further comment pending the details of the bill.
An estimated crowd in excess of20,000 rallied at the legislaturelast week in support of teachers, with many there expressing a desire to resist any effort to force them back to work without a negotiated new deal.
The bill also includes penalties of up to $500 per day for teachers as well as organizations that disobey the back-to-work order.
‘Provoke a fight that was never needed’
Calgary Grade 9 teacher Bernie Dowhan said the imposed contract would not address teachers’ key issues.
“What is happening in the classroom cannot continue anymore,” he said after the bill was tabled.
“Money’s great, but what we’re dealing with in the classroom cannot continue any further.”
Opposition New Democrats have vowed to fight the legislation as best they are able.
In a statement after the bill was introduced, Official Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi called the government’s use of the notwithstanding clause “shameful,” adding it was a move that should alarm teachers, parents, students, and all Albertans.
“This is an unprecedented attack on the Charter-protected human rights and freedoms of teachers, workers, and all Albertans — all just to force teachers back to the classroom,” it reads.
“The solution to this entire situation has been clear and simple for months — properly fund public education and negotiate in good faith with teachers. The UCP has actively chosen to fight teachers instead of coming to the bargaining table and making classrooms better.”
Speaking to reporters later on Monday, Nenshi accused Smith of fleeing her responsibilities.
“She couldn’t delay her Middle Eastern vacation by one day to at least show up in front of Albertans and take responsibility for this disgusting piece of legislation,” he said.
“You want to blame someone for your kids being out of school for four weeks? Don’t blame the teachers. Blame the government. They engineered this strike. The government always knew they were going to use this constitutional hammer. And, Albertans should be very worried. Whose rights are going to be next?”
Section 33 ‘moral imperative’
The notwithstanding clause, Section 33 of the Charter, allows legislatures to limit certain rights for a five-year period. It was included in the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a means of balancing the legislative authority of elected officials with the judiciary’s interpretation of the Charter.
Horner said its use was necessary after it became clear that bargaining was no longer a fruitful exercise.
“We have respected the bargaining process and made every effort to reach a fair and responsible settlement.”
Justice Minister Mickey Amery cited a “moral imperative” in justifying the use of the clause.
“We must protect Alberta’s children from a prolonged and unnecessary delay in their education.”
Section 33 has most frequently been invoked by Quebec and most recently by Saskatchewan in relation to pronoun legislation.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s governmentused the clause in 2022to end a dispute with striking education workers but soon backtracked amid widespread backlash.
Alberta’s government first tried to use Section 33 in 1998 in relation to limiting lawsuits and payouts from those who had been forcibly sterilized, but the move sparked outrage and then-premier Ralph Klein reversed course within a day.
In 2000, Klein’s governmentintroduced the Marriage Amendment Act, which included the constitutional override, though the courts later ruled the definition of marriage was a federal matter and beyond the scope of any provincial legislature.
Smith has hinted she is willing to use Section 33 to shield government bills around transgender health, education, and sports.
Last month, the federal governmentchallenged Quebec’s secularism lawand argued there should be limits to the use of the clause.
Klein also used back-to-work legislation in 2002 to force 16,000 teachers back to work, though many retaliated by withdrawing voluntary extracurricular services, including coaching and fundraising, in protest.
‘Unprecedented’ union response
Over the weekend, Alberta unions vowedan “unprecedented response”to the potential usage of the notwithstanding clause to force teachers back to work.
A news release from Common Front, a coalition of 30 unions representing more than 350,000 workers, stated the use of Section 33 would be unprecedented and escalate the government’s situation with teachers and other unions.
“If governments start using the notwithstanding clause as a tool in their dealings with workers and unions, it will make a mockery of the constitutionally protected right to strike. Without a robust and reliable right to strike, worker bargaining power will be eroded, and with it, the wages and living standards of all Canadian workers,” it reads.
“If you take this unprecedented approach, we will have no choice but to mobilize an unprecedented response.”
After the bill was tabled Monday, Alberta Federation of Labour leader Gil McGowan said the province had “declared war” on organized labour andwarned of wider repercussions.
“I just want to make it really clear that if the government puts a gun to the head of the teachers and they’re not able to continue their strike, then we in the broader labour movement will stand where they’re not able to.”
— with files from Cindy Tran and Steven Sandor
