Potential teachers strike could leave Alberta parents scrambling for childcare

An Alberta classroom in a file photo. (CTV News)

Parents across Alberta are waiting to see if kids will be heading back to school at the end of the month, or if teachers will walk off the job.

In June, teachers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike, with 94 per cent of the 39,000 votes cast in favour of strike action.

Teachers had 120 days to take action after the vote, making the deadline for a possible strike Oct. 7.

That could leave a lot of families scrambling for childcare.

Out-of-school care facilities (OSCs) aren’t allowed to care for children during school hours, according to one expert in the field.

“We can operate before school and after school. When schools are open, we cannot operate during the day, and a teacher strike would consider schools to be open,” Annalise Yuzda, the vice president of childcare for YMCA Northern Alberta, told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.

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“What would have to happen is we’d have to be mandated by the education and child care ministry to be able to operate full days during a teacher strike.”

But the Ministry of Education and Childcare said that since the YMCA is a licenced childcare operater, it already has a licence to provide childcare if schools are closed.

The ministry also said that schools would be closed during a strike, not open as Yuzda said.

An email from the ministry’s press secretary said it is reaching out to the YMCA to clarify confusion on this issue.

That being said, Yuzda says OSCs wouldn’t normally have staff working during school hours.

“We would have to redirect our operations to extend care during the day. Have more staff come in to care for children during the day,” she said, adding the government has previously mandated YMCA’s OSCs to work during daytime hours during a strike.

“This is not the first strike that we’ve lived through,” she said.

“We’ve done it before and we’ve recruited staff to help out during the day that are not normally there.

“We’re sure that we could operate at most of our centres if we were mandated and allowed to do that.”

A statement from the Ministry of Education and Childcare said provincial licensing regulations do allow OSC programs to provide all-day childcare when classes are not being offered as long as they continue to meet legislative requirements.

“This means that OSC programs are free to extend their hours to provide full-time care to accommodate families whose children are affected by a potential teacher strike,” said an emailed statement from the ministry’s press secretary Garrett Koehler.

“Programs can always reach out to their licensing officer if they have questions about extending their hours.”

For parents who don’t have an OSC, options could be limited.

The city says at this point it isn’t considering extending any of its day camp programs into the fall, but officials are continuing to monitor the situation around a possible school strike.

Families looking for child care options in their community can use the Child Care Lookup tool or call Child Care Connect at 1-844-644-5165.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association says negotiators will return to the bargaining table next week.

The Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association, the provincial group dedicated to collective bargaining with K to 12 school teachers, will hold a vote on Aug. 29 about whether to lock out teachers.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny