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Two Alberta cabinet ministers say money was a key factor in the government’s decision to use the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to override teachers’ rights and shut down a provincewide strike.
In a November letter to constituents, Infrastructure Minister Martin Long said the United Conservative Party government could not risk allowing the labour dispute to go to arbitration and put the province at risk of paying out hundreds of millions of dollars.
“An arbitrator would likely have sought a middle ground between the two proposals, leaving taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions, potentially billions, in additional costs,” he wrote.
“Albertans elected this government to make responsible choices — not to delegate them,” the letter said.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, asked Wednesday by reporters about Long’s letter and potential costs, said elected leaders, and not third parties, need the ultimate approval on decisions with significant policy and financial implications.
He said in this circumstance, the government was faced with an impact “to the tune of billions of billions of dollars” and changes to government classroom management policies.
“Those final decisions, I firmly believe, need to be in the hands of elected officials and not independent, unelected arbitrators,” he said.
Premier Danielle Smith’s government used the notwithstanding clause to stave off legal challenges of a October bill that ended a three-week strike by teachers across the province.
At the time, Smith tied the decision to use the clause to the health of students, saying the mental, social and educational well-being of kids in the classroom was threatened by the lengthy walkout.
Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said the statements from both ministers are “quite disturbing,” and said Long’s letter is effectively an admission by the government that the education system is underfunded.
“Were they worried that they actually might have to spend money on public education here [because] an arbitrator would settle on the side of teachers?” he said in an interview Wednesday.
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During the strike, Smith said she believed in the bargaining process but Schilling said Long’s letter “suggests otherwise — that arbitration is not a legitimate procedure.”
“It should be quite concerning for the labour movement within Alberta, but also Canada,” he said.
In the midst of the walkout, the two sides had contract proposals some $2-billion apart and, by mid-October, teachers rejected a government offer to end the strike and go through enhanced mediation.
At the time, Schilling said the proposal vetoed discussion of caps on classroom sizes, a main sticking point in the dispute.
In a Wednesday statement to The Canadian Press, Long reiterated that his top priority was getting kids back in the classroom as quickly as possible.
He also pointed to the province’s now-estimated $6.4-billion deficit handcuffing the government from spending “months in arbitration” and potentially “billions more” without heading off the possibility of future teacher labour disruption at the local level.
Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said the letter is an acknowledgment the government doesn’t believe in arbitration or the Charter right to collective bargaining.
“The government today has admitted that they conspired to use the notwithstanding clause to pass an unconstitutional law because they want to keep our education spending the lowest in the country.”
Nicolaides, however, defended the UCP’s record, saying the cumulative increase to education funding over the course of the past couple of years has been almost 12 per cent.
“We have been moving forward aggressively to approve and build new schools,” he said.
“[We’ve] increased funding, and I’m confident that Albertans will see the results of these significant investments and actions.”
