The parents of about 750,000 Alberta students can expect to send their children back to classes soon as the provincial government has passed legislation to bring an end to a contract dispute that’s kept teachers out of schools since early October.
Bill 2, or the Back to School Act, was passed early Tuesday morning after a long night for lawmakers in the provincial legislature. Premier Danielle Smith’s government introduced the legislation the day before.
The legislation forces striking teachers back to work as early as Wednesday by imposing a collective agreement and invoking the notwithstanding clause to shield it from court challenges for the duration of the four-year deal.
The provincial government used legislative tools to limit debate on all three stages of the bill.
“Our intention is to pass this legislation immediately and end the strike by the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA),” Smith said at a news conference earlier Monday. “My expectation is that students and teachers will be back in the classroom on Wednesday.”
Smith’s governing United Conservative Party has 47 of the 87 seats in the Alberta legislature.
Speaking in the legislature Monday night, Finance Minister Nate Horner said the use of the notwithstanding clause would ensure that “when classrooms reopen, they stay open.”
Members of the Opposition laughed loudly during Horner’s speech, and yelled the word “shame” at the mention of the notwithstanding clause.
Government house leader Joseph Schow successfully brought forward motions to limit debate.
In response, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Manning Heather Sweet said allowing only one hour for debate was an “absolute democratic betrayal in the making.”
“Time allocation is a blunt instrument, and not a shield for constitutional overreach,” she said. “When paired with the notwithstanding clause, it becomes a double blow to our democracy.
“This is not legislative efficiency, this is legislative authoritarianism.”
Naheed Nenshi, leader of the Official Opposition NDP, spoke at length in the legislature about his opposition to the bill and read statements and letters aloud from constituents around the province.
Nenshi said he believes Bill 2 is unconstitutional and that there are “better ways to achieve what we are achieving.”
Earlier on Monday, Smith said the situation is unique because of the two-stage approach for collective bargaining. The bill aims to prevent strikes at both levels.
“There’s two potentials for strike, not only at the general provincial table, but also at the local table,” Smith said. “And if there are strikes that are allowed at 61 different school boards, that does not give the certainty that we need.”
The 51,000 teachers represented by the ATA walked off the job on Oct. 6.
Teachers have rejected two deals their bargaining team reached with the Teachers’ Employer Bargaining Association (TEBA).
Bill 2 put the terms of a tentative agreement rejected by nearly 90 per cent of Alberta teachers last month into legislation.
Alberta’s provincial government has released details of its back-to-work legislation aimed at striking teachers.
ATA criticizes use of notwithstanding clause
The notwithstanding clause is a section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which gives provincial and territorial governments the ability to override or ignore constitutionally protected rights in their legislation for a five-year period.
Jason Schilling, president of the ATA, watched from the gallery as the bill was tabled just before 6 p.m. Monday.
He expressed his fury about the bill when speaking to reporters outside the legislature building.
“We saw a government bully, ” Schilling said. “We saw a government use the legislature to ram through what they feel is a fair settlement and then use the notwithstanding clause to prohibit the rights of teachers. “
Schilling said that if the government is willing to use the notwithstanding clause against teachers, it could use it against anyone in Alberta.
“What you saw in there today is a travesty of our legislature,” he said. “It’s a travesty for democracy.”
In a statement issued early Tuesday morning, the ATA said it plans to “pursue all legal alternatives to challenge Bill 2’s egregious assault on the collective bargaining rights of teachers and, by extension, all workers.”
Other public sector unions have threatened job action in support of teachers if Bill 2 included the notwithstanding clause.
Nenshi said he believes Smith’s decision to invoke the notwithstanding clause makes her “the most authoritarian premier in the history of Canada.”
He said Smith had options with the bill which included sending the dispute to binding arbitration.
Nenshi spoke about the backlash he believes the UCP government will face from Albertans because of Bill 2.
“The premier has woken up parents, she’s woken up teachers, she’s woken up students, she’s woken up workers,” he said. “She’s woken up everybody who wants a better Alberta, and she is going to rue the day that she did this.”
The collective agreement imposed by Bill 2 would cover the period from Sept. 1, 2024, to Aug. 31, 2028.
It contains salary increases of three per cent a year and commits the government to hiring 3,000 teachers and 1,500 educational assistants over three years.
Bill 2 sets financial penalties of $500 per day for individuals who defy the back-to-work order and up to $500,000 for the union per day, if it doesn’t comply with the legislation. The bill also suspends bargaining at local tables until 2028.
The government insists its offer is fair. The ATA wants the government to address issues like large class sizes and support for student complexity in the classroom.
The province last summer appointed an action team to look at aggression and complexity of students in Alberta schools. The final report is expected next month.
After that, a newly announced task force examining class size and complexity in the classroom will start implementing solutions and gather more data on the issue from school boards.
