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EDMONTON — The Alberta government is starting to roll out compensation for the families of children who were kept out of classrooms during a three-week teachers strike.
Premier Danielle Smith’s government promised $30 a day for parents and guardians of each child 12 and under.
The strike, which began Oct. 6, led to 16 missed days of instruction, totalling a payout of roughly $480 per child. Higher payouts are available for children with special needs.
The government says nearly 184,000 families will get payments starting Friday.
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said in a statement the government will release the total amount of funding rolled out to parents once final payments have been processed.
The province’s online portal will remain open for applications until Nov. 14. Another batch of payments is expected to go out Nov. 30.
The money was promised before teachers walked off the job. More than 740,000 students were out of classrooms across 2,500 public, separate and francophone schools until teachers were legislated back to work this week.
Also Friday, the government announced students would be off the hook for January diploma exams and Grade 9 provincial achievement tests.
It said in a release they were cancelled so teachers and students can make up for lost learning time.
Students, however, will have the option to write January diploma exams in April or June 2026. Those who don’t will have their school-awarded mark as their final official course grade.
The strike screeched to a halt when Smith’s United Conservative Party government quickly passed a bill earlier this week forcing teachers back to work.
The law imposes a collective bargaining agreement teachers previously rejected and uses the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to shield it from a court challenge.
The payments are to come from funds saved by the province that would have gone to teacher salaries if it had not been for the strike.
As of Wednesday, more than 222,000 parents and guardians had applied for payments for a total of almost 281,000 children.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association has painted the payouts as a cruel irony. It has said the $30-per-day payments amount to almost twice as much as teachers are paid to instruct those same students in their classrooms.
Classroom conditions were the main sticking point in the labour dispute, with teachers demanding tangible action to address shortfalls in the public education system.
The UCP has promised to hire 3,000 additional teachers, and has struck a panel to try to address overcrowding and classroom complexities.
Union president Jason Schilling has slammed Smith’s use of the notwithstanding clause as a gross violation of rights, and the union has said it’s looking for a legal way to challenge the government’s law.
The Canadian Bar Association, Amnesty International, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Alberta Opposition NDP have also criticized Smith’s pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause.
A coalition of Alberta unions has said the possibility of a general strike is on the table, but leaders need time to organize and consult with workers to gauge the appetite.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2025.
Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press
