Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her finance and education ministers yesterday announced a novel scheme to pay scabs $30 a day to teach school children in the event of a province-wide teachers’ strike!
The rub? It turns out that it’s parents who are going to be expected to do the strike breaking.
Well, at least they won’t have to cross a picket line. They’re going to get to do it all from home – whether they like it or not. As a result, one has the feeling that a lot of people may take the money, but that not a lot of teaching will get accomplished.
“To help ease the extra costs families may face while children are away from their desks during labour action, Alberta’s government is introducing a new payment program for parents,” was the way the government’s press release explained the scheme yesterday.
“This program would be available to parents and guardians of students aged 12 and under who attend a public, separate or francophone school and are affected by teacher strikes,” the official statement said. “Eligible parents or guardians would receive $30 per day, or $150 per week, per student for the duration of the ATA’s labour action.”
The United Conservative Party strategic brain trust must’ve really burned the midnight oil Monday to come up with that brainstorm after they learned that more than 43,000 members of the Alberta Teachers Association had rejected the government’s latest contract offer by nearly 90 per cent.
Either that that or they’ve been planning to provoke a strike by the teachers’ union. “The first payment will be made on Oct. 31,” Finance Minister Nate Horner did say, definitively and confidently, at a news conference yesterday.
“Instead of doing the very thing that teachers have been asking for – investing in our classrooms – the government has now promised parents $30 per day per student when teachers are on strike,” ATA President Jason Schilling said in a statement yesterday afternoon. “This amounts to almost twice as much as teachers are paid to teach those same students in their classrooms.”
The government will finance the payments with money it saves by not paying striking teachers, Mr. Horner told the news conference. So it seems likely the UCP has decided to leave teachers out on the picket lines long enough to feel some pain.
“Our goal is to keep our kids in the classroom,” Mr. Horner said in the news release. No, really, he went on … “Our government is ready, willing and able to head back to the bargaining table at any time.”
Does anyone remember how during the pandemic, the UCP thought it was critically, absolutely, unreservedly essential that children be together in the classroom, regardless of the physical risk to them and their families, for their mental wellbeing?
That was then. Now, for Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP 2.0, it’s all sort of, meh. Parents will get a “curated” online curriculum toolkit they can use if they wish to run a DIY home classroom. And don’t worry about it, it’s free, and they don’t have to use it.
“The toolkit is a resource to assist parents,” Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides explained not very helpfully at the newser. “It is not a mandatory requirement, but is a tool I’m sure many parents will find useful. These steps send a clear signal we are committed to supporting students and educators.”
Huh? I wonder if they just slapped the toolkit together Monday night along with the release and the press conference script or if they were working on that for a while too?
It sounds as if the government hopes most parents just take the money and don’t complain too loudly. Getting the cash, Mr. Horner promised, “should be quite simple and easy.”
“The payments they could expect by the end of the month, for the first month, so the end of October. And it’ll be $150 per week for every kid that’s under 12 and under and is part of the, you know, public, separate or francophone school system.”
Just fill out the online form and the government will send you the dough – at a cost of about $15 million a day, according to the NDP Opposition. Getting it is going to be a heck of a lot simpler than getting a COVID-19 shot in this province, by the sound of it, which certainly says something about the UCP’s priorities.
It’ll also be helpful for teachers with kids of their own in school, who I am sure will be grateful for an official top-up to their non-existent strike pay.
During the news conference, Ms. Smith suggested teachers are actually more concerned about managing large classes, which she blamed on a shortage of actual physical classrooms throughout the province, while claiming demands for higher pay are just being pushed by the union.
The fact the ATA’s bargaining committee agreed to the tentative agreement that the union’s membership overwhelmingly rejected on Monday suggests the opposite is true. However, trying to demonize a public-sector union while feigning respect for its members is on brand for the UCP.
Moreover, Mr. Schilling said in his statement, “the ATA has put forward concrete solutions like class size caps, but has been shot down at every turn. The resulting memorandum was the product of last-ditch efforts from the ATA’s bargaining team to reach a proposal that teachers could then vote on.”
By and large, reporters at yesterday’s newser seemed more interested in querying the premier about the behaviour of the moderator at her “Alberta Next” town hall the night before in Calgary. Bruce McAllister told an audience member who had a question about private school funding that he ought to be paddled by his parents before cutting off the young man’s mic.
“I know you’d love some chaos but your parents should turn you over your knee,” Bruce McAllister told 17-year-old Evan Li.
Predictably, Ms. Smith blew off any suggestions the former Wildrose Party MLA’s glib sorry/not sorry tweet yesterday didn’t meet the standard of an actual apology. “Well, none of us are perfect,” she chirped.
Since Mr. McAllister has been pretty consistently rude to questioners who don’t stick to the premier’s separatist script for her supporter-packed Alberta Next rallies, and because Monday night’s in Calgary was the last live one anyway, it’s pretty clear she sees nothing wrong with his behaviour.
NOTE: I have been schooled. ATA members do not receive strike pay. The relevant sarcasm has been modified accordingly. DJC
30 dollars a day , or two hours at the lowest minimum wage in the entire country. Probably a coincidence Yankee Doodle Dani owns a “restaurant” right ?
Bird: Her husband, the train expert, once did. It was in a rail car. I believe it has been sold. They were certainly trying to unload it for a spell. DJC
We have seen this saga before in Alberta, both with public education and public healthcare. That was under premier Ralph Klein. The teachers and nurses were treated like garbage, and laid off in droves, while schools and hospitals had the funding they needed scaled back greatly. Here we go again with the UCP. Public education and public healthcare in Alberta is grossly underfunded, while teachers, nurses, and other medical professionals are treated with utter contempt. Under premier Ralph Klein, multitudes of teachers and nurses were laid off, and it hurt them, and Albertans. The UCP could have the same intent, because they want more funding for private schooling, and private for profit healthcare, like their hero, Ralph Klein wanted. Those Alberta Next panels are nothing more than a scripted farce. Deceived and easy to fool people believe the lies these phony Conservatives and Reformers tell them. Where is the sense in this? We certainly never saw this stupidity when Peter Lougheed was premier.
Yet during Ralph kline we lost pst…soooooo again tell us why it was bad.
taxes pay for things Mom of 3
Alberta hasn’t had a PST since the 1930’s so try again. You can’t even spell your hero Klein’s name correctly so you’re either simply ignorant or a UCP bot. I’ll leave it to the regular readership to decide.
Alberta never had a pst…more is the pity. As long as a pst is structured so it doesn’t negatively impact low income earners, it pays for public service needs things we all need.
Well we now pay Canada’s highest electricity rates as his promise of competition failed.
The health system never recovered as these ultra conservative governments want to privatize health care! Then education. They treat teachers as babysitters who complain. I come from a family of teachers and married a teacher whose extended family has many teachers.
It’s a tough job, lots of evenings, many extra hours, I know. And as manners and respect seem to have disintegrated into rudeness and disrespect, it’s much tougher.
I can recall a grade 3 student telling my wife as a sub, to f off. Wife responded by immediately taking her keys to the principal and saying don’t call me again.
Then there are aides. Some classes with as many as 5. What nonsense. And the largest issue is the loss of learning time who really want to learn. How to concentrate with all this noise around u. As a grandmother of 5 under 14 years, she taught them all cursive writing, their signature, reading and numbers, or the old say reading, righting, rithmatic. Provide the tools , support, salary and space and teachers will supply the education to our next workforce. Simple but unrecognizable by our UCP government. It’s an investment with a high pay back
Marlaina can find $15 million a day to demonize teachers and buy votes, but pleads poverty whenever it’s time to pay a fair wage to workers. A long strike also helps her promote private schools and hasten the destruction of public education. After all, educated voters are bad for her plan to turn Alberta into an authoritarian petrostate. A lengthy strike also distracts from the corruption scandal at AHS which might the biggest reason why the UCP are pushing so hard for one. Buckle up parents. Marlaina has plenty of reasons to lock your kids out of the classroom. She could not care less about public education or families affected by her lockout.
Your comment about teacher’s “strike pay” being “topped of” is incorrect. Teachers DO NOT get strike pay.
The article says, “non-existent strike pay.”
Is “non-existent” not part of your vocabulary? It means, “not existing or not real or present.”
MSGH: To be fair to Tanya, the initial post of that story did not contain the word non-existent. I think the author – that is, me – not the commenter, is the problem here. DJC
This UCP Government is an absolute disgrace. They would rather dictate than negotiate and by having Nate and Dingy interject is totally inappropriate.
Meanwhile Bruce McAllister should be fired for his comments and behavior. His apology was not even close to being sincere, but Dingy Smith seems alright with his behavior.
The real worry is the sideline comment from Smith that many people are in favor of some of the topics at the Next Panel and they plan to ram some of them without a referendum. She did not indicate which ones, but no doubt it will be the police one and perhaps the pension one. This is consistent with the UCP not listening to Albertans and forging ahead in a dictatorial manner.
The Premier continuously tells us she speaks for Albertans and Albertan’s value as if we are a different species all in favor of her gaslighting. Well half of us, over half in fact don’t want the police or pensions proposals but she ignores this and carries on as if the stacked Alberta Next meeting were representative of 5 million.
I am surprised that Smith did not carve out the teachers for collecting the thirty dollars a day per student but it is still early. If they do go in that direction I imagine the press announcement will mimic the Seinfeld episode, No Soup For You.
(“Well, none of us are perfect,” she chirped.)
No bigger understatement! But, the UCP, along with TRUMP, continue to reign and subvert and pervert all things “government”. A myriad of wildly deranged actions and policies with cemented support from their base.
This senior has never seen so much derangement so prevalent since Aberhart (pales in comparison). Alberta and America are on a seeming path toward danger, summarizing simply how I see it.
SO I WILL BORROW A SONNET the may be apt:
“Amantes Assemble Sonnet 99
Rise, revolt and roar out loud,
No more pleading in front of prejudice!
Breathe, burn and brave out loud,
No more bearing in front of malice!
Dream, dare and dance out loud,
No more dangling as docile doormat!
Heave, hold and help out loud,
No more retreat in front of cold updraught!
Fall, fix and forge out loud,
No more settling as the forgotten figures!
Grow, glow, and break out loud,
No more groveling at the feet of bloodsuckers!
Only antidote to oppression is civilian unsubmission.
When the children go astray, it’s time for parental intervention.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans
Wonderful thx
Teachers do not receive strike pay.
Understood, Katherine. Thanks for the reminder. My sarcastic comment will be corrected in a subsequent post, of which there are sure to be many on this topic. DJC
“No one is available to answer your call. Please call again later.”
ALBERTA’S COVID RESPONSE
Rinse, and repeat.
With the AHS scandal, the coal mining, hunting, trapping, the teachers strike, deciding not to adhere to Canadian international agreements, Frig, the list just goes on and on. This UPC government under Smith and the TBA, continue to prove their complete incompetence. Sometimes I think they should be labeled a criminal organization, as they continue down the path decaying morals and trying to gain Trump’s favor by breaking up Canada.
The UCP government is rolling in dough. Sure, some of it is hard to trace but it’s there. Just stop insider deals and blaming “the other” and presto, a balanced budget. But hey, it’s so much more sexy to subsidize a stadium.
And btw we have a lot of barely used office space in Quarry Park (thanks ESSO) which could make great residential space.
Don’t forget that this isn’t just scab money. It’s a reminder to parents that they have an obligation to follow state parenting guidance from Mother Marlaina. Have you spanked your 12-and-under children today? You don’t think you’re getting that money for nothing, do you?*
*A reminder that this is indeed the advice of the premier’s Alberta Next Panel and also sarcasm. Abs thinks a return to the days of children as chattel is not only backwards, it’s inhumane.
I think I’ve figured out the UCP strategy over the past couple of days.
1. Remind parents that the government is fine with hitting children and indeed recommends it.
2. Remind people of voting age that they could do anything they want to their own children, if only we would separate from Canada, which has that mean Criminal Code, restricting hitting children 12 and under and making it a crime to assault older children under 18. Just think: no laws at all. Stick it to the feds! Freedom!
3. Remind the public that job opportunities for minor children await in the coal mining industry. The children, already submissive from regular beatings by their parents, will be perfectly suited to work alongside the pit ponies. Salary: $30 a day. Once parents get a taste of that sweet lucre, how will they be able to resist sending their wee ‘uns underground? Just think: $90 a day for three, without lifting a finger. That’s $630 a week, because in the early 20th century, miners did not get a day off. $2520 a month for doing nothing! Just feed them from time to time.
4. Erase all thoughts that this feels somehow wrong, like selling your children into state-sanctioned slavery. You can always have more children if anything goes wrong, and with the premier’s current obsession with fertility and babies, you might have to anyways.
5. Who is Jonathan Swift?
Abs: Loved Point 5. How very Randian of you! DJC
I always appreciate your posts but felt I should add a small detail for my first comment: teachers will not be receiving strike pay.
Thanks, David. I will mention that in an upcoming post. DJC
Article should have a warning “Heavily influenced by propaganda”
Every couple of year the teachers and union pull the same thing cry foul of class sizes and salary while the deafening roar of “think of the childern” attempts to muffle the calls for increased salaries, pension benefits and health care well beyond what any private sector offers. It’s funny there’s none of this while governments are doling out tax dollars and reaching further into Albertans wallets to flat for their taxpayer funded trips and conferences to Vegas and other events that 90% their parents can’t afford to take themselves. Grift the taxpayer isn’t solely a government of the day problem they all do it for their own causes. Teachers and unions included
Albertans are thinking of their childern, they’re also willing to have the conversation and ask the questions that unions have difficulty answering …Why have the class sizes increased? How do we address the root causes without throwing good money after bad?
If teachers and Government want to negotiate in bad faith so be it, the $15M can be a return for services not rendered to the parents. Wish it included jr/Sr high as well.
Teachers if you’re tired of the unionist/government fights every few years, There’s plenty of parents out there looking for teachers for homeschooling pods and are willing to pay for the education and remove the propaganda and use of their childern as a collective bargaining tool for unions
Curated curriculum toolkit? Did PragerU curate this toolkit?
Can AI compare the content of the Provincial resources to that of this organization and its educational materials.
Excellent idea. DJC
Yes they should clone their god Ayn Rand voice and do some AI teaching.
What a treat.
Sandy McLeod—
Don’t really need AI, just check out the goings on of one “former state superintendent of education ‘Ryan Walters ‘ on FB
“Historic reforms for parents, teachers and children
Breaking– in a stunning move Oklahoma becomes the first state where every single high school will have its own Turning Point chapter after C.Kirks assassination…..”
Also…
He resigned his post to take a new job to destroy the teachers union…( NBC NEWS “embraced controversial culture war issues during his tenure—-Ordered schools to teach the bible*)
The clips I’ve seen are so similar to Marlaina’s, I’d almost say plagiarism, but from which one is undetermined.
However, Oct 2nd
Oklahoma AG requests investigation of education department, 1 day after Walters resigns….
Completely coincidentally, Marlaina posted on Feb 7th/2024
” I was delighted to sit down with Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin in Washington d.c.
There is so much in common with Alberta and Oklahoma…”
About those other trips to OK, how very curious. Hmmm! IMHO–
First Prager U, now Turning Point…seems to me that the swamps are expanding exponentially, no matter the terrain.
Oh Joy! The American Education plan! Homeschooling and strikebreaking in one fell stroke. Let the undereducated parents educate the next generation.
Just look south to see how that worked out.
Might I suggest that the province contract with Liberty University of Lynchburg, Virginia for online materials that fit their procrustian bed. They are well experienced in such materials.
So, Queen Danielle has decided that teachers are not worth paying, and would rather pay the parents to do the work of education. No standards, all nonsense, that’s the style of this clown show. And with the hand wringing and pearl clutching over inappropriate books in classrooms, don’t worry about the UCP checking on what’s on parents’ bookshelves. They’re not about to go that far in the never ending war for FreeDUMB.
Still, handing over $30 a day to keep the parents of strike-bound children from rioting isn’t much of a way to prevent the political damage that’s coming. As for Smith, she’s happily childfree, so not her problem. She’s still hoping for another return to Mara Largo to kiss the orange foot, again.
I don’t think she needs to wait for permission to go back to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ass of the Mango Mussolini. She can jump on a plane and go there any time she likes on the taxpayers dime and for one of any number of useless excuses like non-existent trade missions or something. Trump said it a while ago that with the tariffs many were lined up to kiss his ass. Maybe he was referring to our Premier?
Well none of us are perfect could be the UCP’s campaign slogan for the next provincial election campaign, or Smiths, if she doesn’t become too unpopular like their former leader and they have to dump her before then. At least I suppose it captures her disinterest or arrogance. Smith is normally better at communications, but perhaps all the problems are starting to wear on her.
The UCP’s go to solution seems to be to throw money at problems, so $30 a day to placate upset parents is in keeping with that. It seemed to work in the last election campaign when they gave out cheques to enough people to offset high electricity prices. Mind you, that was when oil prices were much higher, I am not sure if they can keep it up now.
We’ll see how well this goes over, but $30/day does not seem like a lot to compensate parents to take on teaching. You can make way more even by working at Tim Hortons. However, being stingy and trying to make it appear generous is also a common UCP approach to dealing with problems.
Correction to your correction: Alberta teachers will get strike pay, but only $30 a day for each child age 12 and under. Apply directly to the Government of Alberta.
Also, university education students trying to complete their student teaching practicums during the fall and winter sessions could be out of luck. Will the Government of Alberta reimburse their tuition fees and living expenses during this time? Seems fair. How about $30 a day plus tuition?
I’m surprised Marlaina didn’t blame Ottawa for the teachers’ strike. Maybe she had used up her knee jerks for one day since she blamed Ottawa for Imperial’s layoffs and moves, even though the federal government has said they want to talk to Imperial to find out the company’s reasons. The feds say they’re very disappointed at Imperial’s announcement, but Marlaina seems to think it’s all Ottawa’s fault for not building more pipelines. Imperial did not step forward in all this pipeline talk and offer to invest in a pipeline, but Marlaina was never one to let the facts get in the way of her ideological idiocies. She sure is a one-trick pony. And if she goes ahead with a provincial pension plan without a referendum, there need to be riots in the streets. F—ing fascist.
Michele….imo,ff is correct.
Also she posted ” Joined Bloomberg tonight to share Alberta’s decision to spearhead a new pipeline to Canada’s coast.** I only managed to get to ” the US is our best friend and trading partner “……
**I wonder if she had a specific one in mind ????
Embarrassing. Pay teachers what they deserve instead of this ridiculously short sighted and narrow minded work around. This government wants to privatize public education without even having the means, facilities and know how to even incorporate this way of thinking.
Do I have to prove I have kids to collect the dough? I’d like to register my dogs. They went to obedience school.
@Rob, Your dogs probably learned more than many of the home-schooled American kids.
At least they know who’s yankin’ their chain. 😉
B— SNAP AND BURN..
LMAO–
Cynical as I am about Alberta voters, I expect that this debacle will not make a dent in UCP/Smith popularity. The implications of the strike and government actions will go over the heads of most Albertans who vote UCP. I can only wish it were otherwise.
Daniel Smith…she’s proud to call Alberta the BLACK SHEEP OF CONFEDERATION!!
As a 30 year career educator these are the real problems .
A… large class sizes
B… trying to mix in special need students with lack of in class supports
C… the exponential growth of students that need accommodation outside of B ( above) and rely on the classroom teacher to coordinate.
D… Spaces such as gym stages and libraries having to be converted to everyday classrooms.
E. Over crowding of schools.. infrastructure has not kept up
F.. inflationary pressures that we all face.
G. Funding shortfalls. Per student grants near the bottom of the country
H. Prioritizing private over public.
These are systemic issues.
Hammer:
I agree with all your points. Teachers have accepted zeros for too many years – always willing to do their part when deficits were there, yet not reaping the benefit during the good times. Where is this huge surplus the UCP said was here just a few months ago? Funny how it has disappeared now that teachers are negotiating a contract.
I think your point H, though, is the most troubling. I am truly worried about public services and the direction Smith is systematically working towards.
Alberta has offered the teachers everything they asked for.
1000 new teachers a year, more assistants, and even a raise.
The ATA just wants to have a fight with the UCP.
No they didn’t and the UCP fights with everyone. Isn’t that their modus operandi?…I mean when they aren’t trying to steal money from the disabled or kill us with their “covid” policies?
I hope you are being sarcastic. If not you are as uneducated as the rest of the people that vote UCP.
Ron — 1000 new teachers , more assistants, new schools…DO NOT magically appear next week in time for classes to resume. How long has she been ‘promising’ more teachers etc. Does she have a secret supply somewhere, because there’s a shortage across Canada; plus she was the one that canceled the school building plans that were in the works.
How about the UCP is fighting with the ATA, just trying to gut another union for their own agenda?
Negotiations are supposed to be a reciprocal process.
Thirty dollars a day times (at least) thirty students in a classroom equals $900 per day. Pro rate that for a 185 day school year, and the $30 per day would be the equivalent of paying the teachers $166,500 per year.
This government has lots of money when it wants to.
Time for teachers, parents, nurses, doctors, and all other unions to not vote for UPC’s in the next election. People need to become more informed and not vote for a political party that does not listen and not work for the people. Times have changed and the Premier seems to cater to select base
In 2014 when the BC Teachers went on Strike, the government announced $40/day for parents of children under the age of thirteen. A decade later and Alberta still hasn’t adjusted their “parental bribe” soaked in aged “Eau de Ralph Bucks” to the level of inflation. Pitiful.
Stop blaming the teachers for wanting reasonable working conditions; learning conditions for students; and pay. Start fulfilling the Education Act of Alberta which says in its preamble: “WHEREAS the Government of Alberta recognizes that in-person learning opportunities are important for students’ well-being and
success and is committed to preserving access to in-person
learning”.
C’mon now government – start doing what you were elected to do – serve the people.
There’s a very simple misunderstanding here. The government is elected to serve a tiny but really groovy minority of the people, not the hoi polloi. Progs continue to pretend that there is a “pragmatic centrist approach” in an economy and society in which power rests entirely in the hands of a completely corrupt monied elite. Democracy can’t exist in a system in which there is an ownership class with a significantly better set of rights, and a working class with an inferior set of rights. Every time there is a chaotic rupture in the status quo, our overlords rub their fetlocks together with glee at the degradation of public services, which affords the opportunity for one or more of them to wet their beaks in the ensuing mess.
Danny Train has derailed everything she has touched, now, her biggest achievement will be derailing Alberta. Instead of putting money to good use, say public education for instance, she is using 14m$ of our money as free pre election campaign advertising to prove Canada doesn’t work based on a project the private sector doesn’t want. This Canada doesn’t want us will fit in perfectly with her spring election retoric. Combine this and the teacher strike and the train wreck has the division she created for her election platform.
If we believe the Govt has learned from the pandemic, and will actually have a reasonable distribution system, even though it comes late in the strike period such that parents bankroll all the costs, it still leaves some lingering questions: is this allowance taxable? Is it a temporary where a portion of it will have to be repayed in the future? Is there a cap for the period in which the Govt will limit coverage? The UCP seem to have he means to find unlimited funds whenever it comes to ideology and patrons, but we see very limited support for Albertans and Services… time will indeed tell