Every teacher in Alberta's public, separate and francophone schools must belong to the Alberta Teachers' Association and pay its fees. For decades the ATA was also the body that disciplined its own members, the only teachers' union in Canada to judge itself. The province has now taken discipline away. What remains is a compulsory union with a regulator's powers and the accountability of neither.
In 2022, before a law requiring a member vote on political spending took effect, the ATA's Provincial Executive Council moved $16 million from its strike fund into political advocacy. No member vote was held.
We will argue, in a series of articles this season, that the ATA's statutory status should end: that Alberta's teachers should form a union they choose to join, and that money taken for politics without consent should go back to the teachers it was taken from.
The ask
- End the ATA's statutory monopoly. Separate regulation from representation.
- Make membership in any teachers' union voluntary.
- Return fees spent on politics without a member vote.
Status: Series in preparation. Legislation is not possible before September 2027; the case has to be made first.