Teachers and public education supporters from across the region banded together in Jasper yesterday (Thursday, October 9) to demonstrate solidarity in their ongoing labour strife with the provincial government.
Teachers walked off the job Monday amid stalled negotiations.
Wearing “Red for Ed” clothing and brandishing a colourful and creative assortment of placards and posters, the two-hour rally in front of the Jasper National Park Information Centre drew honks and cheers from passersby.
“It’s great to be among such spirited, dedicated people,” said Grande Prairie teacher Peter MacKay, who made the four-hour trip with colleagues.
MacKay, an educator of 28 years who has held a prominent position on the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s central bargaining committee, rejected recent comments made by Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides suggesting teachers are going to have to make tradeoffs to come to an agreement.
“The tradeoffs have been made already,” MacKay said. “They have underfunded education for years, with devastating consequences.
Alberta currently ranks last in Canada for per-student operational funding. MacKay said for two decades, teachers have accepted salary freezes and heavier workloads to keep schools running.
“There’s no way out of this without a greater investment in education,” MacKay said. “You can’t refold what they put on the table and put a new bow on it.”
In September, 89.5 percent of union members voted down a contract that would cost the province an additional $2.6 billion between 2024 and 2028. The rejected offer included a 12 per cent general wage increase, plus an amalgamation of salary grids in 2026 that would give some teachers wage increases of up to five per cent. The offer also included adding 3,000 more teaching positions and 1,500 more educational assistants to schools.
But MacKay said there aren’t enough teachers in the province to make that promise stick.
“Where are you going to attract them from if the salaries aren’t competitive?” he said. “The reality is you can’t attract teachers without competitive salaries, these things go hand in glove.”
Hinton music teacher Jessie Smeall was among the dozens of Grande Yellowhead Public School Division staff who showed up for Jasper’s education rally. She said in her 11 years as a specialist teacher she’s seen increased classroom complexities, but supports have not kept up.
“The complexities that are in our classes are not being met, whether through funding formulas, educational assistance supports or a new curriculum that’s not supported enough to help teachers do their jobs successfully,” Smeall said.
Teachers are asking for hard caps on class size and compensation when complexity pushes classes beyond agreed limits. Alberta once tracked and capped class sizes but stopped in 2019 when the United Conservative Party was elected. Minister Nicolaides has said that classroom caps don’t affect student outcomes.
“The research doesn’t support implementation of class size caps,” he told CBC’s Eye Opener program on October 7. “[Studies] demonstrate that there’s very little to no impact on student academic achievement.”
Teachers have asked Nicolaides to back up his statement with reciepts.
MacKay, who said class sizes across Alberta are far too large, said the only solution to improving pupil-teacher ratios is to hire more educators.
“That’s a first step,” he said.
On Thursday, the ATA put out a press release saying negotiations with the provincial government’s bargaining team are set to resume after the long weekend. ATA media liaison Heather Grant said exploratory discussions that took place since last Friday helped in the development of further negotiations.
Smeall, who spoke at yesterday’s rally in Jasper, said her message to Albertans is that teachers will stand united in fighting for students’ and teachers’ learning conditions.
“If we don’t have support for both, nobody’s going to succeed,” she said.
Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
