A labour relations professor is criticizing the Alberta government's threat to legislate striking teachers back to work as about 750,000 students entered a third week of cancelled classes Monday.
Jason Foster from Athabasca University says the government's plan could create more problems down the road.
"So instead of trying to resolve the conflict, they (could use) a get-out-of-jail-free card to just bring an end to this whole thing," Foster said in an interview.
"Governments do this because it solves their immediate political problem. But what it does is it just creates more problems. It means that the issues and concerns of the teachers go unresolved. They feel even less respected, less heard."
Premier Danielle Smith said last week teachers can "fully expect" to be ordered back to work if the strike is still on when members of the legislative assembly reconvene.
The fall sitting begins with a speech from the throne Thursday, followed by full legislature sittings beginning the following Monday.
"We think that three weeks is about the limit of what students can handle before we'd start seeing irreparable harm," she said Friday.
Government house leader Joseph Schow, who is responsible for shepherding legislation through the debate process, declined Monday to provide further details or possible timelines on back-to-work legislation.
"Dates have been talked about, but nothing's been finalized," Schow told a news conference to discuss bills expected to be introduced in the fall sitting.
Around 2,500 schools were shuttered after 51,000 teachers walked off the job Oct. 6.
The Alberta Teachers' Association and the government have been see-sawing over a contract, with the main sticking points being wages, classroom sizes and support for students with complex needs.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said students are facing the consequences of the union's rejection of a previous government offer and its refusal last week to go through enhanced mediation and reopen schools.
"Students have missed out on valuable learning, sports activities, personal development, social interaction and more," he said Friday.
"Their education and well-being are at the heart of everything we do, and next steps will be focused on getting kids back into the classroom as soon as possible."
In the last provincewide teachers strike in 2002, Foster said the government also ordered teachers back to work.
Then-premier Ralph Klein also formed a commission after the order to study the state of Alberta’s education system and offer recommendations to government.
Smith said last week her government also wants to form a commission on education when the current strike is over.
But Foster said recommendations the earlier commission gave, including class-size guidelines, were never implemented and are still an issue.
Union president Jason Schilling was asked in September whether teachers would defy a back-to-work order.
"All options would be on the table at that point," he responded at the time.
The strike has strained Alberta businesses, ended vital school food programs for students and left students preparing for university applications stressed.
Online lessons the Alberta government has curated for students to use amid the strike have also been criticized as incoherent and confusing.
The government's bargaining committee and the union have met once since the walkout.
The union said Sunday it remains "open to meeting with (the government) to bargain in good faith on the proposals we provided to them."
Finance Minister Nate Horner's office said the government continues to encourage the union to propose a reasonable deal.
He earlier said the union "shot for the moon" with its latest proposal and the government couldn't afford it. He said it requires the province to spend $2 billion more than the $2.6 billion it set aside over four years in its last offer.
The government offered a 12 per cent salary increase over four years and a promise to hire 3,000 more teachers.
On Friday, a government letter inviting the union to enhanced arbitration said both sides were "extremely far apart" and the dispute was causing an "unacceptable state of affairs."
It said enhanced mediation would last a month, after which the mediator would put non-binding terms to both parties for review.
Schilling called the mediation proposal insulting, as it vetoed discussion of caps on classroom sizes. He didn't rule out the possibility of ending the strike if the province changes the terms of mediation.
He also said teachers aren't willing to back down on their demands.
Teachers say they regularly have more than 30 students in their classrooms and are stretched too thin.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
