The Decibel - Why Alberta teachers are on the cusp of a historic strike

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

The education system has been fraught with controversy in Alberta. From the government’s recent attempt to ban certain books in school libraries, to their introduction of several measures affecting transgender students. And now, a major pressure point between teachers and Premier Danielle Smith’s government has come to a head: overcrowding in Alberta’s schools. On Monday, over 50,000 educators across the province are set to strike for the first time in over 20 years.Today, the Globe’s education reporter, Dave McGinn, joins the show. He’ll tell us about the major influx of students in Alberta, what’s behind it, and how it’s transforming schools.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at – [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week marked the end of Alberta Premier Daniel Smith's cross-provence tour. The province created a panel called Alberta Next in response to separatist sentiment. Over the past few months, they hosted town halls fielding questions from Albertans on a range of issues. But not everyone had their questions answered, or even heard. I know the Premier, I'm a few minutes, but back to the mics. Hi, my name is Evan Lee. I'm a Calgary High School student.

Like many high school students, I'm very concerned about what's going to happen to the upcoming Alberta teachers strike. But just an hour ago, they voted 89.5 in favor of striking. Evan's a grade 12 student and was at the final Alberta next panel on Tuesday in Calgary. And my question is, why is the government handing out four? Evan was cut off as he started asking about how the province funds schools. I know you'd love some chaos, but your parents should turn you over. your knee. Let's go over here. Oh, that's rude. That's rude.

No, rude. Go ahead. That is disgraceful. That's missing a teenager. That moderator, Bruce McAllister, received huge backlash for his remarks, and he since apologized. While the panel didn't want to talk about it, there is a lot to talk about with Alberta schools, especially with teachers on the verge of an historic strike, like the

government's recent attempt to ban certain books in school libraries, their introduction of several measures affecting transgender students, and new rules around sex education. But a major sticking point is one you may not have heard as much about, and it's how unbelievably crowded schools are right now. Today, the Globe's education reporter, Dave McGinn, is on the show. He'll tell us about the major influx of students in Alberta and what it's doing to schools. I'm Cheryl Sutherland, and this is the decibel from the Globe and Mail. Dave, it's great to have you on the show. Thank you for having me. So teachers across Alberta could be on strike as early as Monday. If this happens, how many teachers and students

will this affect? Like, how big of a deal is this? It is a pretty big deal. It will see 51,000 teachers walk off the job, and that strike is estimated to affect upwards of perhaps even more than 700,000 students in K to 12 schools across the province. Wow, okay. That's a lot of students, a lot of teachers we're talking about. And what has the province said it will do if the strike does go forward? The province has put in place a couple of measures to help families in the event of a strike. One is financial supports, so the province has promised families and guardians of kids 12 and under $150 a week beginning October 31st, and that money will be retroactive to whenever the strike begins.

They're saying, you know, you could use that for child care or for tutoring. And then there's also an educational component to the way the province is hoping to help families. they've launched a toolkit that will follow the provincial curriculum so that, you know, if you do hire a tutor or you yourself as a parent want to make sure your kid is keeping up with their studies and not suffering any learning loss, that toolkit will run you through four core subject areas. Okay. $150 is something. It's not a lot of money. And of course, it's going to put a lot of parents and kids in, you know, in a pretty difficult situation if it does go forward. And I understand that this doesn't actually happen very often in Alberta. Like the last time a strike happened in the province was 20 years ago. So this is not something that is a normal thing. No, certainly not a frequent thing.

The last time there was a teacher strike was 2002. And they were ordered back to work after about three weeks. Okay. Yeah, back to work legislation. Yeah, which the Alberta Minister of Justice has floated the idea of doing. But Daniel Smith said last week that there is no plans as of now to order the legislature back early. So the earliest they would address any back-to-work legislation would be late October, which means if there is a strike on Monday, you know, we're looking at something that could last a few weeks. Oh, wow.

And we're talking about if, but, you know, it does appear that this strike will go forward on Monday at this point. Yeah, it's looking pretty likely. As of Tuesday, the Alberta Teachers Association has no negotiation scheduled with the province. So there's always a slight chance. There's a last minute deal struck by the weekend, but it is looking increasingly likely that there will be a strike come Monday. What do we know about what's led up to this moment? These negotiations have been going on for a long time. Both sides first sat down at the bargaining table about a year ago.

There are some big issues such as pay and class sizes, but there are also a lot of other factors in the background of this that are adding to the tensions between teachers and the government. So, for example, the recent attempt to ban books and school libraries, recent move to ban transatlanticism. gender kids, 12 and under from participating in amateur sports and the responsibilities that all those things would download onto teachers, plus some public relations campaigns that each side has initiated against the other have really sort of added to the tensions and feeling of disrespect that teachers have at this moment that have made negotiations even more fraud. Okay, so you mentioned pay and overcrowding as kind of the big issues here. Can you just tell me a little bit more about those two? Yeah, on pay, the deal that the union just rejected

included a raise of 12% over four years. The union has said that is not enough. Teachers need more to compensate for inflation over the past few years. And they also say you're going to need a salary range sufficient enough to attract new people into their profession and to keep people in their profession because the teacher shortage right now in Alberta and across the country is quote unquote at crisis levels according to the union and overcrowding is a huge issue because tens of thousands of new students have come into the province over the past few years Class sizes have just been growing and growing and growing as the province itself has seen its population begin to just swell dramatically. And that leaves teachers in rooms with upwards of 40 kids.

What they say is not enough supports a huge amount of stress and burnout. And they want to see those classroom conditions improved. So, of course, we said the two main points there are pay and overcrowding. And I actually want to zoom in to overcrowding. Class sides is something that we hear a lot about across Canada, right? Like, I mean, I have a daughter who is in school in Toronto, and like we talk about classes all the time. But what's going on in Alberta is different. It seems to be different.

So can you just paint as a picture? Like, what does a school look like in Alberta right now? Yeah. I think you're right that class sizes are a perennial concern for parents in many parts of, the country. What makes Alberta such a unique case is that a huge number of people have come to the province. And what they're finding now is there aren't schools for their kids. Right. So you're looking at classrooms of 40 kids. You're seeing libraries turned into classroom space and the library becomes a cart that gets wheeled up and down the hallways. You're looking at teachers' lounges being

turned into classrooms, gymnasium space being turned into classrooms. I have heard, from parents who say, you know, they worry where their kids are even going to be able to play during recess because of portables that have had to been installed. I've talked to parents who have children who have learning challenges, whether it's autism or ADHD and saying that their children are unable to find a quiet space anywhere throughout the day because the schools are so full, they're just so frenetic all day long. The Edmonton Public School Division has estimated that by 2027, it will run out of high school space. Wow.

Right. So there's just a huge amount of pressure, something like 80,000 new students have entered Alberta schools over the past three years. That's a huge number. A huge number. And people can move to a province a whole lot faster than a province can build schools. Wow. So this also goes into the fact that the growth of Alberta's population has. skyrocketed as well. Like, they've been setting records in recent years, including adding

202,000 new residents in 2023, which is the largest annual increase in the province's history. So a lot of people moving to Alberta. A lot of people are moving to Alberta. Okay, so let's talk about what you've heard from teachers. Like, what have they said about the situation? Like, how are they dealing with this? Teachers are pretty frustrated. They aren't just dealing with a lot of kids in a classroom. It's also that the complexity of classrooms have changed a lot since the pandemic. So you have a lot of kids who are showing behavioral issues, who have learning challenges. And so teachers aren't just having to deal with classrooms of perhaps 40 kids. But amongst those 40 kids, more and more of them are a higher proportion of them have these sorts of learning challenges or behavioral challenges that are making the job of a teacher a lot more stressful. and that is why, at least in the view of the Alberta Teachers Association, you're seeing large numbers of teachers leave the profession and less and less people wanting to enter the profession.

Okay, yeah. Aren't there rules around classes in Alberta? Like, I know it's different depending on where you live in the country. For example, I know here in Ontario, there are hard caps, at least for earlier grades. But what are the rules in Alberta? There are no hard caps on classes in Alberta. And I think that's one of the sticking points for the union. Okay.

So this overcrowding issue in Alberta, is this a province-wide problem? It is. It is in every part of the province. Edmonton, Calgary, the bedroom communities of those cities. A union survey earlier this year found that 69% of teachers reported that their class sizes had increased over the past year. Wow. I'm sure there are many places in the province in more rural communities that have not seen this huge population influx that are free of these challenges. But in Edmonton, the board chair told me for a story I had done earlier this year that right now, with the number of new students coming in every year, they would have to build five new K to nine schools every year.

just to keep up with population growth. Wow. And they are not building that many schools every year. We'll be back after this. Okay, Dave, so there's clearly been an influx of people moving to Alberta, which you've talked about already, which has meant a big jump in students. Why is Alberta seeing such a huge influx of people? Well, the education minister would blame what he called. out-of-control federal immigration policy, at least in part, for some of this growth.

But another big part of this growth is the success of the Alberta's Calling campaign. Hey, Toronto. Thinking about moving out of Ontario, why not consider Alberta? It has higher salaries, lower taxes, and a lower cost of living. Alberta is Calling. Learn more at Albertaiscauling.cauling.ca. A message from the government of Alberta. The province has been actively courting people from the rest of the country for years now, right?

The Alberta's economy has been doing so well for so many years. They need people in certain professions from outside the province to move to Alberta to help with the economy's needs and its growth. And so in 2022, the province launched the Alberta's calling campaign. And the province is trying to entice people from other provinces to say, you know, there's a great quality of life here. You can find affordable housing if you're someone from Ontario and BC looking at skyrocketing housing prices. A great life awaits you here. And the Alberta is calling campaign is still going on. Oh, interesting.

For some people in select professions, they offer cash incentives to move there. and you will have critics say that the campaign has become a victim of its own success. Because while huge numbers of people, especially from Ontario and BC, have moved to Alberta in the past few years, the infrastructure needs of that growth have not been addressed, critics will say, right? So primarily schools have not been built to accommodate all of this growth. You'll also hear people say that they haven't built enough hospitals. and all the other sort of needs of a growing population. And just to get in some numbers here.

So last year, over 43,000 people from other parts of Canada moved to Alberta. And that's just shy of the record of 55,000 people from elsewhere in Canada who moved to Alberta in 2023. So just to give you some perspective there. And you know what? I actually know of at least one family that he did the call and moved to Alberta. So it is something that people did. A lot of people did.

And most of when you look at those numbers that you just cited, most of those people, people came from Ontario and B.C. Yeah. So government points to federal policies as the issue behind overcrowding in schools. Do they not see their campaign as having anything to do with this influx? If they do, they didn't tell me. I asked them that question and I said, has Alberta is calling been a victim of its own success? They did not answer that question.

Okay. Yeah. Has this caused any tension in the province? You know, the fact that Alberta is pointing to immigration as the issue behind influx of students, overcrowding, that kind of thing. The interesting tension that came up with some of the parents that I spoke to who were frustrated about their crowded classrooms for their kids actually came up not so much from international immigration as much of it was tension just generally from whoever might be coming to Alberta, whether it's from BC, whether it's from Ontario, whether it's from another nation, is that they felt that their needs. should have been addressed, right? Like now their kids' classrooms are being overwhelmed when the province should have considered

what population growth would look like and what needs there would have to be fulfilled in terms of schools and hospitals and housing and all of these other things. I think there's a slight resentment that people who had grown up in somewhat quiet communities their entire lives and chose quiet communities.

communities so that their kids could go to a small school are now overwhelmed with class sizes. Like, like, Airjury is a bedroom community of Calgary. It's, you know, it's like a quiet little place. I think its population is now something like 100,000, but that's not a giant metropolis. And one woman who lived there said she moved there specifically because she wanted to live in a smaller place with a small school where her kid could get lots of attention. And now it's just like crawling with kids. And so you feel a little betrayed by the government policy to be like,

yo, like I oriented my entire life around this lifestyle. And within two years, you're telling me like the playground's gone because of portables and we don't have a music room anymore. And it's something that happened very quickly, right? Over like over three years. It's a very fast change. It's a very, very fast change. So what is the government doing to address overcrowding in schools?

They have seen the problem. Now, critics might say they've seen it too late, but they have seen the problem. And they are investing more than $8 billion to fast track the building of schools, which they say will create something like 200,000 new student spaces. But it does appear like they need these spaces right now. and the space is not available? No, it takes time to build a school. That's the problem. And, you know, there are schools in the pipeline, the construction that has predated this.

But I think, you know, what critics would say the needs are now and the urgency now, unfortunately, many of the schools that are being fast-tracked will still take years for their doors to open. Are there any places that we have a timeline on when schools are. are going to be built? Well, in Edmonton, the public school board currently has 13 school projects underway, but the first one isn't expected to open until 2028. So it's a ways away still. What about teachers, right? I mean, yes, you need the buildings, but are there enough teachers to be able to teach all these students? Not in the opinion of the Alberta Teachers Association. So part of the province's latest offer to the union included hiring 3,000 new teachers.

Jason Schilling from the ATA said that is a, quote, drop in the bucket of what is needed. Okay. And that kind of brings us back to this potential strike. What will you be watching for as it approaches? There are a few things I'm going to be on the lookout for. One, obviously, is how parents are doing and how parents are feeling about it. you know, are the majority of parents supportive of teachers and how much does that support suffer as time goes on?

Strikes are frustrating. That's kind of their point. I'll also be looking for any sign that the government is hoping to issue back-to-work order. And more generally, I just think, you know, what negotiations may be happening between the union and the province because you would hope that neither side really digs in. I mean, obviously everyone would hope for a quick resolution, but perhaps not. Perhaps this is something that drags on for weeks. If the strike is averted on Monday, is this the end of the dispute between teachers in the province?

No. No, I don't think so. I think this will be a temporary relief from that tension. I think with the issues that are still so divisive between the government's policies and teachers. So again, going back to things like attempting to ban books or transgender legislation or even the recent ads that each side have taken out in Alberta to criticize and disparage one another. I don't think those resentments will go away quickly or easily. Dave, thanks so much for being on the show. Thank you so much for having me.

That was Dave McGinn, the Globe's Education Reporter. That's it for today. I'm Cheryl Sutherland. Our producers are Madeline White, Michal Stein, and Ali Graham. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening and I'll talk to you soon.