Back-to-work legislation still a ‘deep wound’ for Alberta teachers waiting for classroom improvements

Students from Robert Thirsk High School demonstrate in support of their teachers after they were legislated back to work in Calgary, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

One year after the Alberta government forced striking teachers back to work, neither classroom conditions nor their relationship with the province is markedly better, their union says.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling gave the Alberta government a “D” in addressing classroom sizes and complexities, two points around which the labour dispute revolved last year.

He said the province has hired 1,400 of the promised 3,000 new teachers and funded nearly 700 complexity teams, but called the progress a starting point.

“Those funding levels need to be increased with the enrollment pressures that we see (and) with inflation,” Schilling said.

Some 50,000 teachers went on strike on Oct. 6, 2025, until the government used the notwithstanding clause to table the Back to School Act, or Bill 2, on Oct. 27, 2025.

• Timeline: Contract negotiations with Alberta government, teachers

Alberta’s 700,000 students missed 16 days of school in the longest education strike in the province’s history.

The legislation enforced the terms of an agreement teachers rejected one month earlier: the hiring of 3,000 teachers and 1,500 educational assistants, a 12-per cent salary increase over four years, and additional market adjustments of up to 17 per cent for most teachers. Bill 2 also outlined financial penalties for non-compliance, and suspended local bargaining through 2028.

Schilling, who has characterized the legislation as an abuse of power and dismissal of teachers’ rights, said the legislation remained a “deep wound” for educators on its one-year anniversary.

The ATA president said he has met with the government twice in the last year to discuss classroom conditions.

“It is frosty because until we see government show a greater respect to teachers across this province, they’re always going to be suspicious of what government wants to do,” Schilling told media.

CTV News Edmonton has requested an update from the education ministry on its commitment to hiring more teachers and support staff.

The ATA will legally challenge the government’s use of the notwithstanding clause next year. Earlier this year, it failed to get a judge to pause Bill 2, thereby allowing the strike to resume.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Angela Amato and Craig Ellingson, and The Canadian Press