As Alberta leverages constitutional powers to end a teachers’ strike, the move has triggered a wave of condemnation from federal NDP leadership candidates, highlighting deeper tensions between provincial autonomy and workers’ rights in Canada’s federation.
Premier Danielle Smith’s government invoked the notwithstanding clause last week to force 47,000 teachers back to work, ending their three-week strike over classroom conditions and wages. It’s a rare use of Section 33 of the Charter that allows provinces to temporarily override certain constitutional rights.
“This is a fundamental attack on workers’ collective bargaining rights,” said Jagmeet Singh at a campaign stop in Winnipeg yesterday. The outgoing NDP leader called the Alberta government’s decision “unconscionable” while standing alongside Manitoba teachers who had gathered to show solidarity with their Alberta counterparts.
The leadership race to replace Singh has suddenly found common ground, with all four candidates united in their criticism of Smith’s government.
Charlie Angus, the veteran MP from northern Ontario, didn’t mince words during a virtual town hall with supporters. “When a government decides it can just tear up constitutional rights because it doesn’t want to negotiate fairly, we’re in dangerous territory,” Angus said. “Today it’s teachers in Alberta, tomorrow it could be healthcare workers in Ontario or public servants in New Brunswick.”
The Alberta Teachers’ Association reports that average class sizes have increased 12% over the last five years, while inflation-adjusted wages have effectively decreased by nearly 15% during the same period. These statistics have become ammunition for leadership hopeful Niki Ashton, who pointed to them during a rally in Vancouver last weekend.
“What’s happening in Alberta is part of a broader Conservative playbook,” said Ashton. “They’re using extraordinary powers to undermine public education while refusing to address the legitimate concerns of educators who simply want sustainable workloads and fair compensation.”
The Alberta government maintains the decision was necessary to prevent further disruption to students’ education. Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told reporters at the provincial legislature that “after weeks of failed negotiations, we couldn’t allow another school day to be lost.” According to Alberta Education data, provincial students had already missed an average of 14 instructional days due to the labor action.
Constitutional experts remain divided on the appropriateness of using the notwithstanding clause in labor disputes. Dr. Emmett Macfarlane, a political scientist at the University of Waterloo, suggests the use represents an “increasingly concerning pattern” across Canada.
“The clause was conceived as a rarely used safety valve, not as a first resort when governments find themselves in difficult negotiations,” Macfarlane explained in a telephone interview. “We’re seeing its normalization in ways the drafters of the Charter likely never intended.”
The back-to-work legislation includes provisions that set teacher compensation increases at 1.75% annually for three years – well below the 3.8% inflation rate reported by Statistics Canada for the prairie provinces. The legislation also mandates a return to pre-strike working conditions, effectively shelving discussions about classroom size limits that teachers had prioritized.
Lori Sigurdson, a former Alberta NDP cabinet minister now teaching social policy at MacEwan University, believes the move reveals deeper issues in provincial governance. “When you use extraordinary powers to avoid addressing the root causes of a labor dispute, you’re not solving problems – you’re postponing them and potentially making them worse,” she noted.
Leadership candidate Bonita Zarrillo connected the Alberta situation to broader concerns about public services during a campaign event in Halifax. “From coast to coast, we’re seeing the same story – underfunded classrooms, overworked teachers, and governments unwilling to invest in our children’s futures,” said Zarrillo. She pledged that under her leadership, the NDP would prioritize federal education funding frameworks that would “make it harder for provinces to shortchange students and educators.”
The fourth leadership candidate, Manitoba MP Niki Ashton, pointed to Alberta as a cautionary tale for other provinces. “What happens when Conservative governments gain power? They use every tool – including constitutional nuclear options – to undermine public services and worker protections,” she told supporters during a Zoom call with riding associations last night.
For Alberta parents like Jasmine Kolinsky, a mother of three school-aged children in Red Deer, the situation feels like a lose-lose scenario. “I was struggling with childcare during the strike, but I also understand why teachers were fighting,” she told me during a community forum. “Using the notwithstanding clause feels like the government is saying they’re above having to find a real solution.”
As teachers reluctantly return to classrooms across Alberta this week, the political fallout continues to spread. The Alberta Federation of Labour has announced plans for weekend protests in Edmonton and Calgary, while national labor organizations are considering legal challenges despite the constitutional shield the notwithstanding clause provides.
The dispute has clearly resonated beyond provincial boundaries, becoming a rallying point for the federal NDP leadership candidates who see it as emblematic of broader concerns about workers’ rights and public services. With the NDP leadership convention scheduled for November, the Alberta teachers’ situation is likely to remain a touchstone issue in the race to replace Singh.
Whether this unified stance will translate into electoral momentum remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Smith’s unprecedented use of the notwithstanding clause in a labor dispute has provided federal New Democrats with a powerful narrative about the stakes of provincial politics for ordinary Canadians.
