Smith defends controversial Back to School Act

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Premier Danielle Smith recently held a news conference to announce Bill 1, the International Agreements Act, but the media took the opportunity to press the premier on Bill 2, the controversial Back to School Act.

On Monday, the Back to School Act was tabled and rushed through the legislative approval process. During her press conference prior to debate and passing of the bill on Oct. 23, Smith defended the decision while NDP leader Naheed Nenshi condemned it earlier the same day.

 “Today, we learned the UCP government is not only forcing teachers back to school without addressing any of their concerns, but it’s also changing the rules to ram through this legislation even more quickly,” Nenshi’s statement read.

 “This is the biggest abuse of democratic rights in Alberta’s history. The UCP government has had multiple chances and many months to get this right and make a deal. Instead, they bargained in bad faith and never really wanted to settle this. They engineered this strike,” he continued.

 Nenshi said forcing teachers back into the same crowded classrooms and failing education system wouldn’t solve anything. He advised Smith and the UCP Government to “stop taking the cowardly route instead of doing the hard work. Get to the table and negotiate a real deal.”

 When confronted by the media about Neshi’s comments, Smith said that though there was still time to negotiate before the bill went before the committee of the whole on Oct. 27, she wasn’t expecting a resolution.

 She said that earlier in the week, the Alberta Teachers’ Association returned with an offer “that moves us even further apart, rather than closer together.”

 “We believe in the collective bargaining process, and we were a bit mystified as to why the ATA put forward to their members two negotiated settlements that did not get approved. There’s clearly some kind of disconnect that happened between the ATA and their membership,” Smith said.

 She said it was unusual for a strike to continue on when a 12 to 17 per cent wage increase was on the table. The Province offered a deal that would see teachers making over $100,000 a year after seven years, add 130 new schools by 2030, 3,000 new teachers, 1500 EAs, and a salary range ranging from $70,000 for a starting teacher to $119,000 for the most experienced.

 “Those all seem to be pretty fair to us, and so we hope that there’ll be an opportunity to have a breakthrough. But barring that, we’ve got to get the kids back to class,” she said.

 In direct response to Nenshi’s criticism, Smith said the NDP in Manitoba has essential services legislation on teachers, but Alberta hasn’t gone that route because “we respect the collective bargaining process, and strikes are part of the collective bargaining process.”

 “But when you get to a point where irreparable harm is being caused to kids, that’s where we have to draw a line, and we have to make sure those kids are back in class,” she said, noting that in 2002, then-Premier Ralph Klein ordered back to work on a teacher’s strike after three weeks. In this case, the strike will have lasted 18 working days or just over three weeks.