Source

In Conversation with Jason Schilling, The Alberta Teachers’ Association

• Season 4 • Episode 2

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In this special edition of SOURCE, CTF/FCE President Clint Johnston discusses the significant teacher strike in Alberta with special guest, Jason Schilling, President of The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA). The conversation highlights:

  • systemic issues facing public education in Alberta and beyond;
  • political implications of the Government of Alberta’s actions;
  • how the strike engaged the public and garnered public support;
  • the underfunding of public education across Canada;
  • the need to adequately address class size and complexity.

This episode was recorded on November 17, 2025. 

(Episode in English with episode highlights in English and French | Cet épisode est en anglais, mais il s’accompagne d’un résumé en français intitulé « Éléments saillants ».)

Learn more | Pour en savoir plus

📽️ View the video interview on YouTube. | Regardez la vidéo sur YouTube 


Entretien avec Jason Schilling, de l’Alberta Teachers’ Association 

Dans cet épisode spécial de SOURCE, le président de la CTF/FCE, Clint Johnston, s’entretient avec le président de l’Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), Jason Schilling, au sujet de l’importante grève menée par les enseignantes et enseignants dans sa province. Voici les principaux points dont ils ont parlé :

  • Les problèmes systémiques touchant l’éducation publique en Alberta et dans le reste du pays;
  • Les répercussions politiques des mesures prises par le gouvernement albertain;
  • La mobilisation et l’adhésion du public;
  • Le sous-financement de l’éducation publique dans tout le pays;
  • La nécessité de trouver des solutions viables à l’effectif et la complexité des classes.

L’épisode a été enregistré le 17 novembre 2025.

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The Source podcast is produced by the CTF/FCE in Ottawa, on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe People. | La balado Source est produite à Ottawa, sur le territoire traditionnel non cédé du peuple algonquin anichinabé, par la CTF/FCE.

Follow us on social media | Suivez-nous : Facebook @CTF.FCE, Instagram @ctffce, Bluesky, X @CTFFCE

Views expressed do not necessarily represent the policies nor the views of the CTF/FCE. | Les points de vue exprimés dans cet épisode ne représentent pas forcément les principes directeurs ou les points de vue de la CTF/FCE.

Jason Schilling:

The use of the notwithstanding clause, the fact that this government felt that it was necessary to strip the rights away of 51,000 teachers in this province. Us that has landed with a thud nationally and internationally.

Clint Johnston:

Hi, everybody from the Canadian Teachers Federation. This is a special edition of Source. I'm Clint Johnston, currently president of the CTF/FCE. And what we're gonna talk about today is actually one of the most significant education occurrences across the country this year, and that is the teacher strike out in Alberta. Um, and. what's really interesting about the teacher strikeout in Alberta is how it was able to focus and bring the attention on. And this is largely honestly through the ATA's really excellent handling of the situation and how they chose to approach it publicly. But it focused attention across the country on what's really been a bit of an elephant in the room for anyone outside of education. And that is the increasing problem with retaining teachers, recruiting teachers, because of mostly increasing complexity and class size. And so that was really the kind of issue that solidified itself in Alberta. There were a lot of other ones. But I'm fortunate today to have the person who is best placed to talk about this with me, which is Jason Shilling, the president of the Alberta Teachers Association. So welcome, Jason.

Jason Schilling:

Thanks, Clint. Glad to be here.

Clint Johnston:

Yeah. And, um, so thinking about the strike in Alberta, I think the first thing that we want to talk about, as I said, is how did you see this as an opportunity to really highlight, bring up, focus the attention in the country on class size and composition and what it's doing across the country?

Jason Schilling:

Well, I think the strike did a really good job about making. The classroom conditions that we're facing in Alberta front and center in the minds of Albertans at the time. And we've seen polling that has indicated that has happened. Um, but really it's a lead up to that point because through a couple years of advocacy work and ad campaigns that we put together, a really successful one that we did in the fall was the least. And we really highlighted the fact that Alberta is the least funded in all of Canada when it comes to spending on. On students in schools by jurisdictions with operational grants. So that campaign really highlighted. For the public, the fact that wait a minute, we are the least funded in all of Canada, yet we're the richest province. Like, how did that happen? And, uh, then sparked the o the opportunity to have further conversations about classroom conditions. And then of course, once we got into, um, the strike really two main issues were top of mind for teachers salary of. Course which helps with retention and recruitment, but also classroom complexities and classroom conditions. And that was what people were really interested in talking about because parents, community members can see that part of it as well. Students live it, parents can see it, and teachers are working in it.

Clint Johnston:

Yeah. I really appreciate that. And um, I'm gonna try not to curve ball too many at you today, but you, um, you mentioned the funding and how you started sometime back with focusing on how you're the least funded. Uh, across the country. And I'm just interested in your short thoughts on what's the interplay. We talk about increasing complexity and class size a lot, and that's a valid truth. But at the same time, I don't know that people are aware that the funding is slowly eroding and going down while that's happening, so. What do you think the interplay is between? How significant is it?

Jason Schilling:

It's hugely significant and they're interwoven and salary focuses into that as well. Weaves right into that one. Also, you can't silo, as I would always say, these issues out. So the fact that we're the least funded that our school boards get not enough money to address inflation and growth, especially student growth. We have seen a lot of students come to the province, which is. Caused our classrooms to explode in size. They come with a lot of complex issues. So English language learning, um, refugee students were just not ready at grade level for a variety of reasons, and we don't have the supports for that. So our own surveying of our membership will say, 90% will say their classes have increased, and 58% of them will say. The resources to address the needs within their classrooms have decreased over time. And that's unfair to students, teachers, to school principals and administrators who are trying to manage all this on the school level because they just don't have the funds to bring the resources in to address the needs of kids.

Clint Johnston:

And that's great. Thanks for that.'cause that's the problem I see is they're two graphs and they're both going in the wrong direction. Mm-hmm. So something else we saw, it's a couple weeks since the strike has effectively ended. Um, it doesn't mean the fight's ended. I know very much there's a lot going on out there still for you and your members. But I'm wondering if you reflections you have, your government chose to go a path to elevate very quickly to legislative means to get you back. And so I'm curious what kind of reflections you have on how that was impacted your membership, how it was for your members, going back into schools and knowing that your government was willing to do that and just your overall thoughts on how that happened?

Jason Schilling:

Well, I think one of the things that we saw through the strike is that it was really effective in terms of bringing the public's attention to what was going on in our schools. Um, there was a lot of support for teachers from parents, from communities, from businesses across the country, the province. And, uh, again, polling shows that, and that has increased since the strike has occurred. Government had a lot of different options that they could have done. We could have got a negotiated settlement. If they would've come to the table to actually sit down and have serious conversations about issues that they, we wanted to talk about, they could have done a variety of things than do a notwithstanding clause to strip teachers of their rights. Mm-hmm. And to order them back and to force upon them a deal that they'd already turned down. There were other options for this government, but they chose, as we keep saying, the nuclear option on teachers because they didn't want to deal with the disagreement anymore, so they just ended it. Now this had a big effect on teachers. They felt demoralized, they felt disrespected. They're angry and justifiably they should be. I am. As well. Yeah. Right. Because you do all of this work, you are hoping to make change that's going to make things better, and then you get ordered to go back to work into the exact same situation that you left. And so members should be angry and, uh, they are still working at, uh, calling out the government on this. And so our parents or the community members, like you said, the strike might have ended, but the fight has not. Yeah, because we are still seeing things that need to be changed.

Clint Johnston:

Yeah, for sure. And, um, I mean, may I say by the way that I know you're angry. I've had enough chances to talk to you off camera. Um, but you do a great job of holding that in and that keeping that professional delivery of a consistent and strong message. So I give you kudos for that. I think one of the other things I was gonna ask about is you've described a real rollercoaster in my, having been in a similar position. Um, you've, that's a real rollercoaster ride you've had to go through with your membership and the emotional ups and downs and. Just, uh, wondering what your thoughts are on, like, how, what is it like to lead through that? What did you have to draw on in your leadership skills to get your members through what is a very difficult time? Because to be clear, you've had a huge leadership role, your visibility across the country on this.

Jason Schilling:

Well, it's one of those things, I think when you get into these roles, you don't, I never anticipated that, uh, our press conferences would be streamed live across the country. But that's not an expectation. You go in. No I came into this role. Wanting to serve members and to make things better for teachers and kids at schools. That's, the idea of coming into this through this leadership, through the strike. It's been interesting and I've really had to, uh, draw on previous kind of conversations that I've had around how I was raised a little bit, so my mom is very pragmatic. And she passed. I don't know. She passed that on to me. So I'm not one to panic. I don't, uh, I don't, uh, tend to lose my temper very often. I did when I was younger, grown into a level of patience, but just understanding there's a lot of big emotions around this. Mm-hmm. And it's really key to listen to people, to figure out what is the root problem, what's really the issue that we have here at this point. And then try to, take what you hear from members and articulate that moving forward in a way that, uh, the public can understand the way that, uh, the press can understand. And, uh, hopefully you're hearing what members are saying and. And moving that forward. But, uh, I mean, you also have moments where, yeah I lost my temper periodically or I had my own sort of meltdown at one point. Yeah. And you just surround yourself with people who are there to help you and support you and to, um, even question you on whether or not, uh, the things that you're doing are making sense. And I think that's really important as well.

Clint Johnston:

I appreciate that and I really appreciate your perspective as well and making sure. Folks understand that there's a face of leadership and you've played a huge role in this and it's, but there's also a leadership team as well, right? Yeah.

Jason Schilling:

And it's not easy because you be then become the target of a lot of stuff. Yeah. And, uh, there's been all sorts of things out there that you find yourself in the center of this attention that you never asked to be targeted in a certain way. And, uh, when people get mad at. Government or the school board or a bunch of people who they feel aren't listening to them. Mm-hmm. They'll turn to their union leadership because they will listen to them. Yeah. And uh, yeah, sometimes you just have to recognize the big emotions because we all have them. Right. We're humans, so

Clint Johnston:

Yeah, it's fine. And your union leadership is accessible. Yeah. And that's, uh, and that's again why I think it's important, that leadership team, you mentioned that, um, when you have those moments. Publicly for you sometimes that you have them to come back and help you recenter and refocus mm-hmm. And get the real message from your membership. I do think that's a good segue almost because you've mentioned a couple times already it wasn't just actually teachers, uh, and yourself in the a TA. There were parents, there were other groups, there were labor groups, there were other people in the public who got so engaged in this. So I'm interested in your take on what was the path of public engagement, if you will? So. How did it start out? What was that like, the perception of what you were undertaking? And then how did you work to change that and how did it change if it did?

Jason Schilling:

Well, again, this is going back a couple years in terms of our media campaigns and trying to draw attention to the issues that we're seeing in Alberta schools. And you always have to have a conversation with your members and say, the media campaigns that we do as an association and other associations will do this, and unions necessarily for the members, they're for the public, right. And uh, so we did a lot of work to lay that ground. That groundwork down so that people understood what the issues were. As we got closer and closer to the strike, we were very transparent about what was happening. When we got into, uh, a failure of a memorandum of agreement, we decided to give actually almost three weeks notice to when we were going to go on strike so that parents had an understanding of what was going to happen. So did teachers, so did students, so did the community. So they had time to prepare, but we also were hoping we would have time to get a negotiated settlement. And of course that didn't happen. And when the strike came, it wasn't by a surprise. People weren't surprised for it to happen. And uh, we had a lot of public support leading right up to, um, the strike And I'm very grateful for it. I'm very grateful for the support of the other unions that are with. Within, uh, Alberta, the public and private sector unions that are there and across Canada, CTF and other member organizations, um, were great in terms of their support. And, uh, we've seen some polling just recently that came out, and that public support for teachers in the ATA has actually increased since the strike has happened because they saw the draconian measures that government took the notwithstanding clause, ordering teachers back, putting kids back into schools in the same situation, was not addressing the issues. And, uh, as much as government would like this to go away, teachers have flipped the conversation in Alberta around education. And there's no going back to, uh, just pretending everything was fine because we all know that it's not, and the public expects more from government now. Yeah.

Clint Johnston:

Well, that's fantastic. And I think you've talked about a lot of things that play into one kind of theme I'm thinking of, which is Alberta, the scale of Alberta's visibility was off the charts. Like you said, nobody expects to be streamed across the country mm-hmm. In their interviews. But really it's a bellwether for the whole country. I mean, if you look across at any jurisdiction, province or territory you're going to see similar issues. Not identical. The geography is different, the students are different, but you're gonna see the. Troubles with retention and recruitment. Mm-hmm. Um, fueled by class sizes, class complexity, class composition, um, increasing violence in schools. They're not dissimilar across the country. But I often think that actually they're there's a root cause that's not being talked about and that is the funding piece. And whether governments are just in a sense, afraid to, unwilling to put the resources forward to address it. And I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm not sure that the solutions are that complex. It just seems like provincial and territorial governments aren't willing to take the steps that they know are needed. What's your kind of thinking on that?

Jason Schilling:

I agree a hundred percent. Um, the situation that we're in Alberta is no different than a lot of other provinces. And if you go into the States, it's the same thing as well. Um, we're all experiencing a lot of the same issues and funding is really the core element for a lot of it. One of the things that we see in Alberta is inclusion as a policy by government. So we have special needs kids who are included in all our classrooms, but they're not funded. Their supports aren't there for that. So, um, we see that in other jurisdictions as well. I think it comes down to. This was years in the making, so we started to see this underfunding really start around 2015 and then just keep growing through the course of the next decade to 2025. To me it's political will. Yeah, it's recently in Alberta, more so political ideology that is, is pushing this, um, because we have a political party in power that believes in school and choice. So for example, we are an outlier in Canada where 70% of private school funding is public dollars. And uh, they made a comment during the strike 'cause it was pointed out, this conversation around. Public dollars funding private schools mm-hmm. To tune a $461 million a year. They said, well, we won't have private schools if we don't fund them. And I'm like, there's private schools all across this country that, uh, don't get public dollars that run and operate just fine. And our policy at the association is, yeah, have a private school if you want. Public dollar should not be going to that. So these conversations are out there as well in terms of. Of funding of the system. We're starving the public system, but increasing funding for the private system. Yeah. And uh, that is something that was good to come out in terms of the strike in terms of people talking about education and the funding.

Clint Johnston:

Yeah that's a really good point. I think it's, um, it's definitely not the same across Canada, but I know there's other jurisdictions where some of the public dollars do go to private schools. And that piece about political will, I don't think can be overstated enough. I think that's the next really big piece of the conversation to have. I frame it as, we've made a commitment to the children of Canada, um, that they're gonna get a quality education that's gonna help, uh, lift them up if need be from where they are um, but certainly to help them achieve everything they can. And it just seems like governments have looked at the tab for that and just aren't willing to pay it. Well, that's, I think that's a real betrayal.

Jason Schilling:

That's the thing, is that governments have cut funding for. A lot of public services, not just education, but healthcare infrastructure is another one. Right. So we're spending $8.6 billion on building and renovating new schools. That's a huge amount of money because they've let it go for so long. Yeah, right. And so they've dug themselves into a hole, not just in Alberta, but other jurisdictions as well when it comes to funding and then to fix it. The tab is really high and they're like, oh, we can't do that. Yeah. Like, well, you have to do something because you're short changing the future. Of Alberta kids,

Clint Johnston:

it's the oil in the car. You don't put your oil in your car. It's a cheap thing to do. But if you don't put it in long enough, pretty soon you're replacing an engine. Yeah. And that ain't cheap to do. Yeah. So I think I I'll give you this one really quick class size and complexity. We talk about it a lot across the country because it's sometimes it's seen as a silver bullet. Like we see it as the source of a lot of the issues we see arising. Just your very short take on it is it the silver bullet? Like, do you think if we could nail that one down that a lot of the issues in public education would be dealt with

Jason Schilling:

it? It's one of the things that is a major factor, but again, it goes back to the funding of that as well. So we can say, yeah, we're gonna address classroom complexities, but we can't do it on the backs of teachers to do more. Right. They just can't do it. They're maxed out. Right? Mm-hmm. So you have to put the funding and the resources in there to help people do this job. We need, teaching is relational. It's working, with adults in the building, with students. They're the biggest resource that we have within schools, so they should be well funded, they should be the resource that government is putting their money in. It's the people to work with our youth mm-hmm. So that they can be successful and thrive and then support them in the other areas that they need as well. But, uh, it's definitely, um, one of the things that's driving members away from the profession, um, it's too complex. They don't have support, they don't have the resources. They burn out and they leave. And that is it's all perpetuating all of the issues that we see. The classroom complexity, teacher retention, and, uh. And that as well.

Clint Johnston:

So I, one, one last kind of question. If you, I feel like you've told us what Alberta needs, what most of the jurisdictions in Canada needs throughout, but if you want to add to it for sure. Other than that, I just, I'm curious if you think we've maybe hit a bit of a moment. Like I said, the scale of what happened in Alberta, it's not unique really. Teacher unions have gone on strike. Um, unfortunately, frequently over the last five years to decade. But it seems like the scale of it, the awareness that your organization did to bring it up in the public consciousness, do you think we've hit a bit of a point now where that's really in the public's mind and we can push on that and make some progress?

Jason Schilling:

Definitely. I think that, uh, when you talk to teachers about the strike and when we went back and, um. Whether they're thinking about, was it successful or not? One of the successes you can take away from the strike in Alberta is the fact that this is very much a public conversation. So as you would know, as a union leader in BC and in Canada, you're always struggling, and so do other unions, about making their issues top of mind for the public, especially around election time as well. Um, right now education is top of the mind for Albertans because they have students, were outta classrooms, teachers were on strike. Everybody knows about the story, and everybody's asking questions now of government as to what are you doing about this? Why did it get so bad in the first place? And, uh, I have seen, um, lots of emails and phone calls and evidence of teachers in public going to talk to MA to ask them about this. You're seeing this phenomenon in Alberta right now where there's recall petitions against MLAs, and a lot of the, um, the evidence or the explanatory notes of why they want to recall the MLAs is not only the funding, the lack of funding for education, healthcare, but the use of the notwithstanding clause, the fact that this government felt that it was necessary to strip the rights away of 51,000 teachers in this province. Us and, uh, in order to force a settlement on them that has landed with a thud nationally and internationally. Like you're seeing, uh, news agencies and other organizations like Amnesty International speak out against the actions of this government, and this is a stain on them. Mm-hmm. This is something that they're going to have to wear with the fact that they're a government that felt it was necessary to strip the rights away of. Of Albertans, of Alberta citizens who they are supposed to represent democratically and did one of the most undemocratic things that they could do towards them.

Clint Johnston:

Yeah. Very much appreciate that. Um, well, I think it's been a real pleasure and I think the interesting thing to me is talking to you but the singular context in Alberta, it's, uh, it's a chance really to focus the conversation that I'm having across the country. Yeah. Um, I go coast to coast and like I said, the issues are the same. We got a lot of teacher unions looking at, is this the year we need to take a strike action? For some of them again. But it's really, it's brought that into a level of conversation that is much appreciated. You've just encapsulated well. Um, so yeah, thank you very much for your time today, Jason. It's been a pleasure to chat.

Jason Schilling:

Thanks, Clint.