Alberta’s classrooms are dark today. That didn’t have to happen.After months of bargaining, the government put forward a package that was hardly stingy. It included a 12% wage increase over four years, a promise to hire 3,000 more teachers, 1,500 educational assistants, plus coverage for COVID-19 vaccines — all spelled out in the tentative agreement. Finance Minister Nate Horner called it a fair deal; even critics conceded the numbers were sizable. Yet the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) urged members to vote, and 89.5% rejected the memorandum of agreement. That’s not “we can do a bit better.” That’s “see you on the picket line.”.MAY: Jason Kenney’s independence panic misses the point.And here we are. Classes suspended across Alberta. Families scrambling for care. Kids missing lessons (again). The government moved to blunt the harm with a parent payment portal and study kits for core subjects — because someone has to help mum and dad keep the learning going while the adults argue.The union says this isn’t about money. It’s about class sizes and complexity. Fair enough — those are real issues. But the rejected offer did include thousands of new hires over three years. That won’t fix every crowded classroom tomorrow morning, but it’s a meaningful start. You don’t get from here to there without taking step one. The responsible move was to bank the gains, keep teaching, and keep bargaining for the rest..Instead, teachers chose the moment guaranteed to hurt parents most. Not by accident. By design.Remember the timeline. ATA members secured a strike mandate in June, giving the union 120 days to initiate job action with 72 hours’ notice under Alberta’s Labour Relations Code. That window covered July and August. If the goal were to show resolve without wrecking family routines, they could have struck in the summer when many parents had already arranged camps or care, and when learning loss would be less acute. They didn’t. The ATA announced a strike start on October 6, right after the fall routines lock in and disruption bites hardest. That’s leverage politics, not “students first.”.BAROOTES: Alberta deserves a voice, not a checkbox: Trudeau’s token Senate appointment fails the test.The union’s own materials tell parents to brace for disruption, to plan for childcare, to expect closures. In other words, inconvenience isn’t collateral damage. It’s the point. Make life painful enough for families and they’ll pressure the government. That’s the playbook. But it’s a dangerous one, especially after years of interrupted learning. The kids who most need stability — newcomers, special-needs students, indigenous learners, those in fragile home situations — are the first to fall behind when adults walk out.Set aside the rhetoric and look at the choices. The government’s offer put real money and staff on the table. The ATA could have taken the deal and kept pushing for more. It could have staged rotating action in the summer. It could have narrowed the strike to demonstration days that didn’t erase a week of lessons. It chose none of that. It chose to make parents the pressure point..This isn’t a moral crusade. It’s a negotiation. And negotiations mean give and take. If the union insists the only acceptable settlement is everything, all at once, then we’re not bargaining — we’re hostage-taking. A better path is obvious: take the raise, start hiring, resume talks. If class caps are the hill to die on, put them back on the table tomorrow. But get back to class today.Alberta’s families have carried enough of the cost of other people’s stalemates. Teachers are respected and vital. They’re also public servants with a duty to the students who rely on them. There was a good, defensible offer on the table. The union walked, and parents are left holding the bill.Call off the strike. Teach the kids. Then keep negotiating — hard.
