Alberta premier Danielle Smith said she hears the province’s teachers loud and clear and wants to find a fair way to make a deal. Speaking on her Saturday morning radio show, Your Province, Your Premier, Smith insisted that the province is addressing both wages as well as classroom complexity and class size. In terms of salaries, she said the province is offering three per cent a year for four years, which she insisted is both competitive and a number the province can afford. “I would just ask taxpayers, are they seeing the same kind of pay increases?” she asked. “We’re trying to give fair (wage) increases but also ones that we can afford and that are consistent with what we’re seeing in the broader market,” she added. As far as class size and complexity, Smith said that’s being addressed as well. “They asked for us to put more resources, dedicated resources on the table to hire more teachers,” she said." We committed to a thousand new teachers per year for the next three years – and they broke off talks." Friday morning, Alberta Teacher’s Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling said the union was breaking off talks. “We’re still at an impasse with government in terms of where we are and where we are bargaining,” Schilling told CTV Morning Live on Friday morning. Talks broke down on Aug. 28 and the province voted in favour of a lockout on Aug. 29. The ATA has been ready to give 72 hours’ notice before teachers go on strike since June. Schilling said class size and rising prices that eroded teachers’ wages need to be addressed more than the province has to date. In this latest update, Schilling said teachers are “seeing some of the largest classes they’ve seen in their careers” but are continuing to work. On the bargaining table, he says the ATA is continuing to fight for fair wages. “They’ve only received a 5.7 per cent increase in the past 10 years,” he said, adding that the cost of living has gone up a lot since then. “Teachers are looking for a salary that will make up for lost inflation, keep up with current inflation and reflect the increased workload they will see in their classrooms.” Smith said the province is investing in building more classrooms to address swollen class size. “We have an $8.6 billion construction program so that we can build more classroom spaces, that’s why we’ve committed to not only give a fair increase but also pledge to hire more teachers – and it’s the ATA leadership that walked away." Schilling said Friday that he’s not at liberty to discuss what figures teachers are looking for but is willing to get back to bargaining whenever the government sees fit. “I’d like to see teachers rewarded for the work that they do,” Schilling said. “We would like to see a negotiated settlement that would reflect the nature of what we are experiencing right now and to try to make education better.” ‘Standstill’: ATA Schilling said present talks are at a standstill. “The problem with an impasse is that both parties are stuck in what they would like to see, but teachers have been clear about what they want to see in their classrooms,” he said. “We need government to come to the table to show that they respect and value, as they’ve said in the past, teachers and public education in this province.” Late Friday afternoon, Treasury Board president and Finance Minister Nate Horner said solving the impasse is in the ATA bargaining team’s hands. “Refusing to bargain now is not an effective labour relations strategy and is unfair to all teachers across Alberta,” Horner said in a statement released Friday evening. Horner said a settlement proposal from the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA) on Aug. 26 agreed to “the hiring commitment requested by the ATA—hiring 3,000 new teachers over the course of the three school years of the agreement.” He said that proposal also agreed to “a similar compensation offer that was previously recommended by the ATA to their members.” He added this was while considering the current economic situation overall. “Last week, I shared the first quarter fiscal update and economic statement and mentioned that 2025 has brought its share of challenges for everyone. We are now forecasting a $6.5 billion deficit, our first deficit in five years,” Horner said in his statement. “Considering our fiscal update, making room for $750 million was not going to be easy, but we were committed to reaching a fair deal for teachers and stability for students and families.” Smith said she remained optimistic that an agreement can be reached. “We asked them to come back to the table, because I think we’re on the right track of addressing the things the teachers care about,” she said, “and we need a bargaining partner to do that.” The ATA’s strike mandate will expire on Oct. 7. Both parties must give 72 hours’ notice before any action can be taken. With files from CTV’s Damien Wood and Michael Franklin
