The Alberta government will table back-to-work legislation on Monday that seeks to end the provincewide teachersâ strike, Premier Danielle Smith said Thursday morning.
The government served formal notice Thursday that it would be introducing Bill 2, known as the Back to School Act, announcing it via an order paper published on the Alberta Legislatureâs website.
âThe precondition has to be getting kids back to school and so far, [the teachersâ union has] been unwilling to do that,â Smith said during a news conference.
âItâs not to say that they wonât have an agreement with us in the next 72 hours. But we feel that itâs not going to move in that direction.
âThey came back with an offer that moves even further apart rather than closer together. So we would like to see a realistic approach that allows us to address the issues of classroom complexity, but we have to get kids back in the classroom.â
About 51,000 public, separate and francophone school teachers across the province have been on strike since Oct. 6. Roughly 750,000 students have been out of their classrooms for more than two weeks.
The strike started while the legislature was on its summer break. But the fall session begins Thursday with the throne speech. Smith and other government officials previously suggested back-to-work legislation could come the week of Oct. 27, after the session started.
In a statement to CBC News, the Alberta Teachersâ Association said: “We anticipated that government would introduce back-to-work legislation.”
“We need to see the legislation to fully understand what it means for teachers,” the statement said.
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said in a statement that his party condemns the move.
âThis is an attack on teachers, on public education, on all workers and their unions,” he said in a statement.
“We unequivocally condemn it.”
