Alberta teachers say what they want is clear, hours before strike scheduled to start

EDMONTON – Teachers and their supporters at a rally outside Alberta’s legislature on Sunday say it’s clear what they’re looking for, despite claims from Premier Danielle Smith that their union appears disconnected from what front-line educators want in a new contract.

“We will use our voices so that nobody is confused about what teachers need in this province,” Alberta Teachers Association president Jason Schilling told a crowd of thousands on Sunday, a day before the union’s 51,000 members were poised to strike.

Schilling, who was also scheduled to speak at a similar rally in Calgary later Sunday, asked if they believed every school in Alberta should be funded, if every teacher should have the resources to do their jobs and if 2SLGBTQ students deserve to be their true selves at school — a reference to new Alberta policies including one that requires kids under 16 to get parental permission to change pronouns at school.

But Smith told her provincewide radio phone-in program on Saturday that she was confused about why teachers overwhelmingly rejected the government’s latest offer, which included a 12-per-cent pay raise over four years, a government promise to hire 3,000 more teachers to address class sizes and money to cover the cost of a COVID-19 vaccine.

She said her government told the teachers association to come back to them with what the real issues in the dispute are, but she said they hadn’t done so yet.

“I think there’s a real disconnect between what the union leadership is putting on the table, saying what their members want, and then when they take it to their members, it gets voted down,” Smith told radio listeners, repeating her call for teachers to call off the strike.

“We don’t think we’re that far apart, and let’s avoid a lose-lose-lose situation.”

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has said the government is taking steps, such as building and expanding schools, hiring teachers and educational assistants, and increasing wages, noting the “dramatic” increase in the number of students enrolled in Alberta’s schools.

Schilling said Thursday the hiring figure in the offer is a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed, noting that the province needs to hire at least 5,000 more instructors to align with student-teacher ratios.

Both sides appeared far apart late last week but the union said Friday they had resumed “exploratory conversations.”

A walkout would affect more than 700,000 students across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools.

“We’re looking for a raise as well as conditions in classrooms that actually allow us to do our jobs the way it’s meant to be done,” said Sydney McLeod, an Edmonton teacher who attended Sunday’s rally.

“I think they’re just being willfully ignorant and pretending they don’t know what the teachers want,” noted Vanessa Wilkens, a daughter of a retired teacher who was also at the rally.

Bill Veldhoen, a retired Edmonton-area teacher, recalled past conflicts between the teachers union and the province, noting he didn’t get a raise at all during his final 12 years as a teacher.

“We have this fight every once in a while because we put kids first,” he said.

Most school boards, including those in Edmonton, Calgary, Fort McMurray and Lethbridge, have sent notices telling families that — barring an 11th-hour deal — classes would be paused beginning Monday. Field trips, extracurricular activities and sports would also be cancelled.

The government has readied an online home curriculum for students. They’re also offering parents $30 per day for each student 12 and under to help with child care costs and tutoring. 

It later announced further subsidies for additional child care, as well as a temporary lifting of the credit limit on distance learning for high schoolers. Parents can also be reimbursed some of the cost of enrolling children in home education programs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 5, 2025.

–With files from Aaron Sousa