6.83°C Vancouver 6.83°C VancouverOct 6, 2025 5:57 PM - The Canadian Press
Alberta's teachers are off the job and PremierDanielle Smith is urging them to come back to the bargaining table. Smith, speaking to reporters in Montreal, says the two sides are not far apart and expects fixing classroom complexity issues to be the focus of future talks.
The 51,000 members of the Alberta Teachers' Association went on strike as promised this morning to back demands for a better deal.
The labour action impacts more than 700,000 students across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools.
The teachers overwhelmingly voted against the government's latest offer, which included hiring 3,000 more teachers over three years to address crowded classrooms.
Union president Jason Schilling said last week that hiring figure is a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed, noting Alberta needs at least 5,000 more instructors to align with student-teacher ratios.
