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The teachers — who are among the country’s best paid — had been willing to forgo pay increases in exchange for limits to the types of bureaucratic and supervisory work expected of them.

“[Education officials] don’t want any limits to what they can ask teachers to do, that was their concern,” Ms. Henderson said.

However, now that talks have started at the individual board level, pay hikes are back on the bargaining table, she said.

“Both of them, I think they missed an extraordinary opportunity to improve classroom conditions for kids, [and to] contain their costs,” she said.

It was very much perceived by the government that got elected that we were against them, but that wasn’t the case at all

4. The province’s doctors are in near-revolt.



The Alberta Medical Association is threatening to sue the government after a multi-million-dollar deal was, they say, “imposed” upon them by the government.

Dr. Michael Giuffre, the AMA’s president, said the good will of doctors was squandered during April’s provincial election.

“During that campaign, the AMA decided we needed to make healthcare the top of the agenda during the election. It was very much perceived by the government that got elected that we were against them, but that wasn’t the case at all. These were very non-partisan advertisements about patient advocacy,” he said.

A signed (and much more generous) agreement-in-principle faltered after election. “It certainly gave us food for thought and made us wonder if there was a repercussion for that.”

There had been no talks until November, when the government imposed a $463-million deal, noting that Alberta’s doctors are already the highest paid in the country.

Dr. Giuffre said this new deal reduced wage increases to 0% over the next two years, and cut major programs. He said the government could have worked with the doctors to find savings in the system.

Instead, now they feel they’ve “lost faith. This is not trustworthy behaviour by the government, nor by the minister.”

Talks are expected to restart in January.

5. Doctors and teachers are not alone.



Contracts with government workers and nurses are also set to expire in early 2013.

National Post

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