Keep Ottawa Out Of Alberta Education

Keep Ottawa Out Of Alberta Education

When Mark Carney swore in his new cabinet upon becoming the 24th Prime Minister of Canada, he did not swear in an Education Minister.

The president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), Jason Schilling, recently spoke before a parliamentary committee, but not to an Education Committee.

Back when the Canadian Teachers’ Federation wrote a letter calling for “federal leadership in education”, they sent it to then-Prime-Minister Trudeau, not a federal education bureaucracy.

And when Alberta academic Kris Wells was elevated to the Canadian Senate - despite a career full of education advocacy, including advocacy for a federal takeover of education - he was not assigned any education portfolio.

All of these things are true for the same reason:

There is no such thing as federal education policy, and constitutionally, there cannot be.

Education is, and always has been, a purely provincial jurisdiction.

The Constitution Act of 1867 could not be more clear on this point:

“In and for each Province, the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education”.

Yet, the constitution is also clear in marking out healthcare, for instance, as a purely provincial jurisdiction.

But, that constitutional prohibition has not preempted the Canada Health Act.

However clear its language, it has not foreclosed the possibility of a federal health bureaucracy.

The Constitution Act has not prevented a federal Health Minister.

In the area of health (and a number of other areas, like natural resources) we have seen that a dedicated lobby for unconstitutional overreach can beat the clearest words on a page - at least until the courts catch up much later, if ever.

For example, ATA President Schilling lobbied for federal action against Bill 27 - Alberta’s recent Education Act amendments on gender identity in classrooms.

Every teacher in Alberta (except those in charter and independent schools) is required to pay dues towards this advocacy, whether they agree with it or not.

[While we won't speculate the cause of the ATA's current “house divided”, Schilling was recently reelected to the presidency by a mere 356 votes.]

On top of that, the ATA sends over a million dollars in member dues to the Canadian Teachers' Federation.

This federal teacher union exists purely to push for unconstitutional overreach into the provincial jurisdiction of education.

Specifically, they have asked the feds to commandeer “health and safety of students and teachers in schools”.

They also demanded the feds take over “Truth and Reconciliation in education”.

This is not in relation to education on Indigenous reserves or “Jordan's Principle” funding for some educational purpose, which courts have found to be a federal responsibility.

It's about the way provincial education systems teach about “Truth and Reconciliation”, which you can safely assume threatens federal control of the entire curriculum.

Since the appointment of Senator Kris Wells, they would seem to have a permanent ally in Ottawa, as he had previously been their “expert scientific consultant”.

The ATA and their allies don’t care whether their preferred policy is constitutional or not.

They just think they’re more likely to get what they want from the federal government than from the Alberta government.

They’d rather see Ottawa force provinces to adopt unconstitutional federal mandates than have to actually persuade the voters of Alberta that they’re good ideas, worthy of support.

So, if you agree that Ottawa needs to keep out of Alberta’s education system, send a message to Mark Carney and the federal government by signing our petition today.