SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Alberta Kids finally back in school： Kris Sims on the end of the teachers’ strike
Episode Stats
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Summary
Finally, Alberta teachers are back to work after a three week strike. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Chris Sims joins me to talk about why Bill 2 was introduced and what's next for Alberta's public school teachers in the wake of the strike.
Transcript
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Alberta invokes the notwithstanding clause to get kids back in the classroom.
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I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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I don't know if you saw this absolutely cringe-worthy response from the NDP leader here in Alberta
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and Naheed Nenshi to Alberta's premier Daniel Smith introducing and then passing in short order
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what we're calling Bill 2. It's to legislate our striking teachers who have been striking for over
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three weeks back to work to get kids back into the classroom. He says Daniel Smith is about to F-A-F-O
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if you know what that means. Look at this. There's an internet term that I feel like I've been using
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a lot lately. It goes F-A-F-O and the premier is in the F-O stage. That means find out. It doesn't
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mean anything dirty. The first part is dirty. So that's a pretty overt threat of a general strike
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from all the public sector unions. Why? Because Danielle Smith doesn't want our kids to fall
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behind thanks to the greed of the Alberta Teachers Association, the ATA. That's the union. Not the
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individual teachers. I don't take umbrage with individual teachers. I do have a big problem
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with their union using other people's kids for their means. My child is not your political plaything.
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And not your hostage in your negotiations. And I'm glad that there is an end to the strike.
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And as of this morning, Alberta kids are back to school. Joining me today to discuss
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why Bill 2 had to be introduced. And what comes next is my friend Chris Sims of the Canadian
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So joining me now is good friend of Rebel News, good friend of taxpayers everywhere, and good friend
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of me personally, Chris Sims. She's the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
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And she's on the show once again to tell us what happened with Alberta's Bill 2. That's the back to
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work legislation for Alberta teachers. Tell us what went down. I see despite the NDP's best efforts,
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the law did pass. Um, so what does it mean for teachers?
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What it means for teachers is they're back at work. Good. As of right now. Yes. Finally. After almost a
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month of our kids, students, remember them? Everybody? Yeah. Remember how this is all about
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the kids? Yeah. Schools aren't just make work projects for adult teachers. I, you'd be forgiven
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for thinking the opposite. Because frankly, the last three and a half weeks, mostly all I've heard
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is a sounding board for union grievances. Yep. Largely in the mainstream media. To be fair,
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there are some folks who are really digging into the numbers there in mainstream media and are doing
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thorough reporting. To be fair, I am talking to some of them. Um, but as of right now, the teachers are
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back at work. Um, I'm told that, uh, a lot of teachers are wearing red for ed today and a lot of
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students are feeling a lot of pressure to do a walkout. Yep. So I wanted just to let people know
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on the ground what that's sounding like in some schools. As far as the taxes and the show me the
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money part goes, as of right now, this is what's happened. So the Alberta government and the Alberta
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Teachers Association, which is the Teachers Union, were more or less bargaining off and on for around
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a year, give or take. Okay. It's a bit smushy. They were at the bargaining table going back and
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forth, back and forth, back and forth. At the beginning of September, end of August, the government
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says that the ATA leadership, the Alberta Teachers Union leadership, had tentatively agreed to a
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contract. Meaning, okay, fellas, we think this is good. We're going to take it back to our
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membership, the teachers, and have them vote on it. And then we'll find out what happens. Well,
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the teachers voted on it and they rejected it by close to 90%. So then they kept going back and
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forth. The Alberta government said, okay, listen, how about we do a school by school analysis of your
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overcrowded classrooms? Or of your classrooms where you have too many kids with too many special needs,
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okay? Or too many kids who are ESL. We're not going to do a blanket class size cap across the
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province because that's inefficient and it wastes taxpayers' money. But I'll tell you what, we'll do
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a thorough granular analysis of every single school. And that's what was on the table.
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But then the teachers union came back with, and so the government had offered this entire package,
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okay, had offered about $2.6 billion in spending. And we can pull up actually what that actually looks
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like here. So this is the package and we're going to look at it here in the graphic. So brand new teacher,
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four years of education, okay? So you've got your bachelor of education, fresh as a daisy at a teacher's
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college. You're starting at $71,000 a year. You put in seven years on the job, seven, you're already
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making over $100,000. It's a $30,000 raise over the course of seven years. That's pretty good.
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You're moving up the ladder real fast, okay? Yeah. And if you're super smarty pants and you take extra
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schooling, okay, like you get a master's or something like that, look at where you're topping
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out. You're topping out just shy of $120,000. I need to also point out that A, standard qualifier,
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I had some really important teachers growing up in my life. Same. I still think about them.
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They meant a lot to me. But this is a fair wage. This is a fair wage. You're working in mostly daytime hours.
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At a school, Monday to Friday, half Fridays here in Lethbridge, for about 189 days a year.
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For context, other workforce days, typically in the calendar year, $240,000. Right.
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$189,000, $240,000. This is a fair wage. I'm getting some emails saying it isn't fair. It's too much.
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Okay. I hear you. Okay. I'm hearing that for some people, but I'm trying to be reasonable here.
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So that's what was offered. And then the teachers union actually came back with,
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Exactly. Thank you. This is where I wanted to show people. So we have a debt of more than $80
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billion with a B in Alberta. We're running a deficit this year. Some people get confused.
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They heard about the surplus from the last fiscal. That has nothing to do with this year.
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Last fiscal year's surplus is like a chapter in a book that is closed and on the shelf.
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This year, we are running a deficit. So every dollar that that teachers union was demanding extra
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is borrowed money, borrowed money plus interest. So just the extra demand money, Sheila would have
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cost all of us taxpayers $80 million with an M in interest. I did the math that would cover the
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salaries of like a thousand teachers. So it was just a crazy demand. I think there, I think they jumped
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the shark with people when they came back and said $2 billion more. Because honestly, I spoke to a
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teacher, longtime teacher. She's been in the game for between 15 and 20 years. She teaches grade 11
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English. She teaches in Edmonton. She was very upset by not being allowed to go back to work a
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couple of weeks ago. She said, I miss my kids. I miss my students. I am not getting a paycheck. I have
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bills coming due on November 1st. Like what is going on? We're getting no strike pay. This, this offer was
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reasonable. But to be fair, she said, you know what? I'm not one to complain. But my last class of the
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day, I've got like 38 kids in there. 16 of them cannot speak English. Or they have severe learning
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disabilities. Like I'm, I'm really struggling. That's totally legit. Like in even the, the premier
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mentioned that teacher lady in question period and said, we have to fix her classroom. So now what had
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happened was government was over here saying, this is $2.6 billion, including hiring 3000 more
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teachers, including hiring 1500 new education assistants, including building over a hundred
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schools. Take it. And the union said, well, no. And then the premier said, well, we're already missing
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final exams for grade 12. This is going to affect their ability with their transcript, by the way,
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with international universities. Yep. Or even, even out of province universities. Exactly. And, um,
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I could, I think a lot of people could see it on her face where she was done. She's like, nope,
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these are the same cohort of kids who were locked out of school during the lockdowns. Yep. We are
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damaging their education now. We're out of time. So she legislated the teachers back to work
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and they have legislated that contract. So it's like, okay, here's your contract. So if you look
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at those numbers again, you're starting at $71,000 a year as a teacher in Alberta. Okay. The government
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says that after taxes, this pay grid that you're looking at makes Alberta teachers, the highest paid
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teachers in Western Canada. Yeah. The issue here, and this is where I don't know, cause I'm not a legal
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scholar. Okay. Uh, they use the notwithstanding clause. Good. I'm getting a lot of those emails
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too, but the Taxpayers Federation, I'm the numbers lady. Yep. And I'm looking at this going, okay,
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what happens now? Like what happens now? So I don't know what happens now. It's been invoked before.
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Um, they invoked it in Ontario and they invoked it in Saskatchewan and Quebec invokes it like all the
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time. They like on signage laws. Like Thursday afternoon. Yeah. Like Thursday afternoon. They
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just pass a law and then invoke the notwithstanding clause every single time. It's kind of part of
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their culture, I guess. It's so, it's a thing. So legally I've spoken to, uh, constitutional lawyers
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who do say and point out repeatedly that this is a fundamental element of our charter rights and all
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that jazz. It's part of the charter. It's yes. Yes. It's an element of it. Like saying that this is
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doesn't the flies in the face of no, no, no, no. This is a tool and a mechanism of it. The issue is
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that Western provinces haven't used it very much. And so it's kind of bewildering to some people.
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So at the end of the day, what the Taxpayers Federation cares about is the government did not back
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down. The government did not cave. The government also was leery about going to binding arbitration
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because they were worried that they're going to have to spend a billion dollars more of taxpayers'
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money. Right. And kids still won't be at school. This is it. Kids, I have to keep stressing this.
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700,000 kids were out of school. I'm lucky. I largely work from home, not all the time. And my kids are
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older. That just means that they were frankly neglected while I was working. They were spending
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too much time on screens. But at least I wasn't worried about who to get childcare from. There are
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so many, oh my gosh, Sheila, the emails I've been getting from parents who were beside themselves.
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So kids have now missed out on nearly a month extra of school. And to be fair, I am hearing from local
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boards here in Lethbridge, and you're going to have to check with your local boards, everybody watching
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this. They are saying that they're cancelling Pro-D days. Like they're making up time. And the
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teachers are like, for example, making sure, okay, we're going to learn Hamlet on the days that we
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were going to be off for exams. We're going to, I'm going to come in special. We're going to make
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sure. Like there are some who are making an effort to try to catch these kids up. I don't know if
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that's happening in every district though. It's definitely not happening in the one that my kids go to
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because they have fall break coming up. So they're going to go back to school for a week and then
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be on vacation for a week right after that, as if the kids can afford that. But it's funny to see
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people say that Danielle Smith violated the democratic rights of the teachers. You know whose rights were
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being violated in all of this? And you know, the other side of this loves the United Nations. So I'll go
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to their guys and I'll quote their favorite organization. The United Nations declaration
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on the rights of the child say that kids have a right to education. And as a parent, I am really
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tired of greedy unions violating my children's rights because that's what I saw. And I just noticed
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that I think it's a global news poll today. No, city news poll. Despite the what the mainstream
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media tells you about this, and despite what the NDP tells you about the back to work legislation,
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they're polling as of like an hour and a half ago when I took a screenshot. It's do you support
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the Alberta government's decision to use the notwithstanding clause to force striking teachers
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back to work? 67% said yes. Wow. There we go. I'm actually not surprised. I don't know why I said
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wow. We have to keep in mind this has been a month. This has been a month of no school for students.
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And to be very clear, teachers weren't getting paid strike pay. Right. They need to take that up
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with their union. There should be a reckoning with the ATA over this. Like what's going on there? And I
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really wanted to hammer this point home because I'm getting people saying, oh, you know, you're not
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good at math or you're not doing your, you know, budgeting well and all that jazz. No. So this is the
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issue. Spending. Okay. I, Premier Daniel Smith has handled this very well. Yeah. Very well. Yep. From a
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taxpayer's perspective, she's been a little too generous. Right. You're sure. I just need to point this
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out because you would be forgiven, dear viewer and listener, if you happen to be listening to the
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usual narrative, you would be forgiven for thinking that Premier Smith went full Ronald Reagan with air
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traffic controllers and fired everybody and hired them all back. That's what I wanted. And hired them
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all back. That she went full Maggie Thatcher. No, actually, she has increased spending on education
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by 33%. Since fiscal year 21-22, I didn't use 2021 because I wouldn't have been fair because it was a
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much lower cost then. I would have gotten a way better number then. But I didn't. Right. I made sure the
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kids were in school full time. And I went back and did that math. From fiscal year end, people can look
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it up in the documents. You can't look at the forecast or the guessing. Fiscal year end data 2021-2022.
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Run your finger down. Education. Okay. We spent just over $7 billion with a B. This year for the budget,
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we are on track to spend $10.4 billion. An increase of 33%. My gosh. And before anybody says,
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but what about inflation? I checked that. Of course you did. This eclipses, it's not 33%
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over and above, but it still eclipses both inflation and student population growth.
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Daniel Smith is still spending more money than we were years ago on kids' education in Alberta,
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including inflation plus population growth. That is a numerical fact.
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No, you're just a dumb girl who can't do math, according to the comments.
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Oh my gosh. I sometimes wonder, it's one of those things where it's like, you know, I have been
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looking at budget documents for like 20 years. Yeah. So people can make errors. Like it's easy to
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do. I do it all the time. But I checked. Yeah. Like I really checked and I'm right.
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Yeah. And you know, our students have some pretty good outcomes here, by the way. And you know,
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when I see the teachers union say, oh, you know, like they, it's some of the lowest funding per
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student in the country. And I'm like, but look at the outcomes. To me, that means we're pretty darn
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efficient. Yes. Yes. This is okay. Sorry to vent. Actually, that's why I'm here. That's why I'm
00:17:24.480
venting. Get it out. Get it out of you. We're all on my breath here. My head's going to spin like
00:17:29.860
Beetlejuice. I want to know what people thought of that new movie. I loved it. Anyway, it was good.
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Um, this is, this is what's going on. Um, we'll hear some of the union. And again,
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I'm not saying all teachers. I just finished speaking to a great one. Okay. Yep. Um, and I
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frankly can't imagine three and a half weeks with no paycheck. That's gotta be, you're in tough.
00:17:47.400
Yeah. You seriously are. Yeah. So I hope things calm down and you're able to keep teaching and
00:17:51.960
everything is hunky dory. But the union leadership will often quote what you just said, the lowest funding
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per student or whatever it was. That's okay for them to point that out because it's from a Fraser
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Institute report, which does amazing work on education analysis and fiscal issues. The problem
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though, is they don't keep reading. Like one line, like one, they just have to like finish the sentence
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in that report. It's right there. Like it's right there where they say that the spending does not
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correlate to outcome. We are second only to Quebec. Yeah. So our students are doing really
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well. Okay. We're second only to Quebec, even though we are spending lowest technically per
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student. The reason why that number gets pulled down to technically the lowest, you know why?
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Because of the big, bad private schools and the big, bad independent schools. Right. That this
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teachers union is freaking out about right now because at the private schools, because the funding
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follows the student, no matter which student, all right, y'all get the same funding. Funding
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follows the student. When you go to private school though, it's 70%. We're saving 30%. Folks,
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that's what that is doing. And outcomes are higher. This is it. So this is where the scales are going
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like this in the way you want them to. Lower spending, but higher outcomes. That's perfect.
00:19:24.040
Sounds like a success story to me. The other way that they're saving money there, Sheila,
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is charter schools. I just finished speaking with Kaylin Ford. Yeah. And the amount is the same. So
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for charter schools, it's 100-100. But they save a ton of dough on capital. Sure. Because charter schools
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have to like squat in like existing buildings. Yeah. They're not building new buildings. Again,
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there's money saving for taxpayers. And again, better outcomes. So don't, when you hear them say
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it's the lowest funding per student. Okay. Numerically correct. But look at why. Yeah. And
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look at the outcomes. We're thinking outside the bun, as they say in those Taco Bell commercials.
00:20:05.060
Chris, before I let you go, I got three minutes before I have to run into my next thing that I'm doing.
00:20:11.580
Uh, tell us about the AI garbage can. Oh my God. Saskatchewan, please. I love this story.
00:20:18.240
One of my favorite things that I count my blessings for seriously are my coworkers and Gage
00:20:23.860
Howbrick. He's wonderful. He is our prairie director. Okay. Go follow him on Twitter. Gage
00:20:29.700
Howbrick. Okay. Good Saskatchewan boy. He found this crazy story in the wild. He was out with his
00:20:36.120
girlfriend walking in the mall. I love that. And he sees this thing. It's this yellow screen
00:20:44.140
next to a whole bunch of recycling bins. And it's this AI recycling bin. And it turns out,
00:20:51.820
he's like, I bet you we spent money on this crap. Darn right we did. And he was right.
00:20:56.320
He filed FOIs. This is his story. I'm just eating his lunch. Yeah. He filed FOIs. Taxpayers
00:21:01.960
were stuck with a $26,000 bill for an AI garbage can. That didn't work properly.
00:21:09.560
You know, I take some solace that Skynet is still failing when it, the garbage cans aren't
00:21:15.200
working right. But yeah, it didn't work like half the time. So apparently it's supposed to give you
00:21:21.300
like a smiley face or a sad face when you put things in the wrong slot. I would frankly, I might just put
00:21:27.760
them in the wrong one just to fight the machine. I hope that machine is still there. I would make
00:21:32.140
a pilgrimage to that machine just to put my recyclables in the organics and see how it went.
00:21:38.340
It would probably arrest you. Oh God, I hope so. Send out its robot armies like from itchy and
00:21:43.640
scratchy land. All the little robot dogs. Those Boston robotics, scary dogs. Oh, don't get me started.
00:21:51.480
DARPA is frightening. But yeah, no, everybody go check that out. That is Gage's work. I'm just
00:21:55.560
pilfering it. But go check that out. It's going to be a Teddy Waste Award for sure.
00:21:59.640
It has to be. Now, Chris, before I let you go, tell us how people can get involved in the Canadian
00:22:04.180
Taxpayers Federation because you not only tell people what the problem is, but you invite them
00:22:09.600
to help you solve it. Perfect. Thank you. And thank you for listening to me. It was always
00:22:13.920
cathartic about the teacher strike thing. So people can go to taxpayer.com. Go to the petition link,
00:22:20.840
sign the petitions that speak to you. It can be anything from getting rid of all carbon taxes
00:22:24.940
to defunding all media so that we have a free press in this country again. Even to simple
00:22:30.440
little things like take the PST off of thrift shop stores in British Columbia. Right. So sign up on
00:22:36.340
the petition that speaks to your heart and then you're part of the taxpayer army. And the next time
00:22:41.300
it is time to gang up on a politician or humiliate a bureaucrat, you'll be there. And it works.
00:22:46.340
That's why you don't pay the carbon tax right now, guys. That's why. Chris, thanks so much for coming
00:22:50.920
on the show. Sorry, I have to cut it short. Uh, I could talk to you all day as you know,
00:22:54.660
and I, some days I do. I know. Say hi to the gang for me. I will. Thanks, Chris. Have a great day.
00:23:08.160
Well, as always, the last portion of the show belongs to you because of course, without you,
00:23:12.300
there's no rebel news. You know, we will never take a penny from Mark Carney to do the work that
00:23:18.520
we do to hold the government to account on behalf of our viewers. That's why we rely on you to support
00:23:24.360
us, our subscribers who support this show, those of you who share our content. Um, there's no us
00:23:32.060
without you at all. And that's why I care about what you think about the work that we do here.
00:23:36.840
And it's why I give out my email address right now. If you've got comments about my interview with
00:23:42.200
my dear friend, Chris Sims, send them to me, put gun show letters in the subject line. My email
00:23:48.840
address is Sheila at rebel news.com. You can get in touch with me directly, but also if you want to
00:23:55.060
help us get around the censorship algorithms, uh, interact with our work, leave comments on YouTube
00:24:02.440
or on Facebook or on Facebook or on the website or on rumble. Um, it's one of those ways that introduces
00:24:10.640
us to other people. If our content is interacted with, it gets served up in front of more people
00:24:16.360
and helps us spread the good word, evangelize the good word of small government and personal
00:24:22.280
accountability. Now today's letter comes to the email and it comes in relation to my last week's show
00:24:31.600
with Rick Igersich of Canada's national firearms association. And Chris writes, hi Sheila. As a
00:24:39.200
non gun owning supporter of the NFA, I really enjoyed your interview with Rick. My only remark is about
00:24:46.320
your statement that the government is spreading misinformation. You might be right. Yeah. I,
00:24:53.520
sometimes I use misinformation and disinformation interchangeably, but misinformation is sort of
00:24:58.240
accidental telling of telling of lies, repurposing, sharing things that aren't true, getting the facts
00:25:05.280
wrong, but not maliciously or sinister motives attached to it. And, uh, I believe Chris is right
00:25:12.640
that the government doesn't spread misinformation rather it purposefully disseminates disinformation,
00:25:20.080
which is, uh, uh, done, uh, maliciously. Members of the public can be misinformed and thus spread
00:25:27.120
misinformation. Exactly. Government has no excuse to be misinformed. They spread wrong information by
00:25:34.160
definition, disinformation. It is their obligation to inform themselves before they inform the public.
00:25:40.800
They cannot hide behind the oops. I didn't know. Keep up the good fight. Yours truly, Chris. Yeah. And it's
00:25:46.160
one of, I mean, the government spreads a lot of disinformation, but particularly on the firearms
00:25:54.640
rights issue where you have the public safety minister, the minister in charge of the gun grab,
00:25:59.920
Gary and Anna Sangary, not knowing anything about the firearms licensing system. I feel like that's
00:26:06.480
sort of your job. And if you're telling law abiding licensed Canadian firearms owners that they are the
00:26:12.640
problem, you better know what they've done to get those licenses and the, the classifications of the
00:26:18.160
licenses. There's only two. It's not like you're gonna have a tough time remembering. If you are the
00:26:22.960
public safety minister, you should have to submit yourself to the RPAL course and pass it. That that's
00:26:28.720
my rule. I don't make the rules, but I'd love to make that one. If you are the public safety minister,
00:26:34.800
you should submit yourself to the RPAL course or and pass it. And if you're the health minister,
00:26:40.160
you should have a healthy BMI. I think that's only fair. That's the show for tonight. Thanks so much
00:26:48.720
for watching, guys. As I said, we couldn't do this show without you. I'll be back here in the same time,
00:26:54.560
in the same place. Maybe. I don't know. But remember, don't let the government tell you that