Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews. (Supplied by The Canadian Press)

By David Opinko

No money for teacher salary raises, says Finance Minister

Mar 4, 2020 | 10:07 AM

EDMONTON, AB – Alberta’s finance minister is taking effective control of upcoming contract bargaining with teachers and says there’s no money for salary increases.

Travis Toews says the government needs to hold the line on public-sector salaries as it works to improve service and balance the budget by 2023.

Toews has introduced a bill that would shift ultimate bargaining authority from the Education Department to his ministry.

A separate board would still directly negotiate with the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

The bill also proposes that starting this fall, schools would need to get the OK from the government before spending any money from their own reserve funds.

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The reserves would be capped after two years.

Toews has been the point person on public-sector negotiations.

He introduced legislation last year that delayed arbitration for thousands of public-sector employees and followed that with requests for wage rollbacks.

(The Canadian Press)