EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith told Albertans on Saturday that she intends to give an update on new education hires and the added funding next week, as her government works to fulfill its side of the province's new teachers' contract. "I think as we've gotten the feedback from our expert panel, as we have our cabinet committee, it's very clear to us that just doing blanket funding on this issue is not going to solve it," said Smith during her Your Province. Your Premier. radio show. "We've got to take a more targeted approach." Smith said that she and Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides will give Albertans an update next week and provide details on the targeted approach. However, she teased that some measures will take effect immediately, but that the work will need to continue into the next school year."We think that this might be a two-year challenge that we're facing because we had such a large influx of students and a large influx of students who are English language learners, so it's going to require us to be involved in the deployment decisions for the next couple of years," Smith said. The added supports are part of Alberta's new teachers' contract and the provincial government's commitment to hiring 1,000 additional teachers per year over the next three years, 1,500 more education assistants, and increasing education spending by $1.6 billion..Smith's comments were made in response to a question from a caller who appeared to catch her off guard, after the caller informed the show that the question would be about pipelines, then switched it up and pressed the premier on the promised education supports. The caller closed the question by challenging Smith about her unwillingness to "demonize" leaders from the Alberta independence movement, arguing that she "demonized" teachers by using the notwithstanding clause to impose a new contract on them. Smith rebutted by saying that the use of the notwithstanding clause was intended to help the teachers because the ATA had not set aside money to give them a paycheque or to cover health insurance during the strike. "So there was some real harm being caused to a lot of teachers as a result, but there were also harm being caused to students, and students have a right to learn," Smith said. "So we thought that because we were getting further apart, rather than closer together, that was one of the only options that we had available to us, because we have two tables at a provincial table, local tables, and we just didn't want rotating strikes on local issues for 61 different boards."
