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EDMONTON — With time running out before Alberta’s striking teachers get legislated back to work, the province and the union say they’re ready to negotiate but want the other side to make the first move.
Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling told reporters Friday that no formal negotiation meetings are set for the weekend, but he also doesn’t see the point in further talks if the province isn’t willing to discuss the union’s key priorities.
“They don’t want to talk about the things that have put us in this situation to begin with,” said Schilling, who represents the 51,000 teachers who have been on strike since Oct. 6.
“They don’t want talk about the chronic underfunding that we see within the system, the fact that students are falling through the cracks.”
He said the government also doesn’t want to discuss caps on classroom sizes — something he said is non-negotiable.
Finance Minister Nate Horner’s office said Friday the province can’t afford what is being demanded and that it wants the union to propose a lower offer.
“We remain committed to a fair and favourable deal for our teachers, but not at the expense of other important essential services,” it says in an email.
The continued standoff comes a day after Premier Danielle Smith told reporters that, absent a deal, her government will order teachers back to work through legislation on Monday.
The weeks-long strike has affected roughly 750,000 students and closed 2,500 schools.
Horner’s office said the decision wasn’t taken lightly, but it’s “the only responsible path forward to end ongoing disruptions, close achievement gaps, and restore confidence in our education system.”
Schilling said the union will need to see what that legislation says before deciding how to respond.
He wouldn’t say whether defying the order was something the union might do but said the association will stand up for its members.
“We have (stood up) every day, and we will every day moving forward, and so we will look and see what (the legislation says) and then we’ll move forward from there.”
The idea of being forced back to work didn’t sit well with Ewelina Warchol, one of thousands who rallied outside the legislature Thursday while a throne speech kicked off the fall sitting.
“That’s a really hard blow,” said the Edmonton-based teacher of 17 years. “It’s taking away a lot of our rights and our possibility to fight for our future.”
Warchol said without further supports in place for teachers, she thinks Alberta’s education system will fail.
Lynne Zwicker, a teacher and parent, said her child comes home from school with stories of desks being thrown because there are too many kids and too few educational supports.
By not investing in public education, she said the province is “failing our future.”
“They are forgetting about the 748,000 little ones who need to have the best education they possibly could,” she said. “We used to have the best education in the world, and I don’t want that to ever go away.”
For Shelby Olsen, not a day goes by that she doesn’t wish to get to know her students on a deeper level. But with out-of-control class sizes, that’s simply not possible, she said.
When she walks into a classroom, Olsen said she sees students with high needs who aren’t getting the help they need. Forcing teachers back to work without addressing the complaints that led to the strike is disheartening, she said.
“We want students to have smaller class sizes, to have more help with their needs, and so them trying to legislate us back seems like they just don’t care about not only teachers, but kids,” Olsen said.
Kathy Penner made the trek up to Alberta’s capital city with a busload of others from her high school in Calgary.
Penner said she’s not happy about being forced back, and said if teachers don’t get more support, she has thought about leaving the province.
“I have held previous certifications in other provinces and I am one of many people that I know personally that are looking at re-certifying in those provinces,” she said.
“There’s so many kids who are falling through the cracks, and (then there are) the attacks on human rights in this province,” she said
“(This) is not a place that I want to continue raising my family.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2025.
Aaron Sousa and Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
