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Alberta Teachers Warn of Deepening Strain as Burnout Mounts and Strike Threat Persists

First-person accounts now center the human toll that underlies Alberta’s ongoing school labour dispute.

Western Canada High School students in Calgary on their lunch break September 10, 2025. Students could be out of class Oct. 6 if teachers vote against a proposed agreement struck between the ATA and the government's bargaining assocation.
NDP education critic Amanda Chapman speaks to the media in April.
Premier Danielle Smith speaks Thursday at the Global Business Forum. Smith addressed reporters the same day about a potential deal with Alberta teachers.
Teachers are feeling burnout due to reduced funding and resources and government interference in the system.

Overview

  • Curtis Fong, a long-time educator, writes that burnout and a mental-health crisis have left him unable to see himself as a teacher despite still working in classrooms.
  • He describes handling crises beyond instruction, including suicide intervention and cleaning bodily fluids, and says community hostility now includes accusations of “grooming.”
  • Fong blames recent provincial measures for compounding stress, citing sex-at-birth attestation forms, opt-in sexual-health lessons, parental permission for pronouns or names, and contentious curriculum and assessment mandates.
  • He argues Alberta funds public education the least in Canada and links scarce resources to retention problems, saying many colleagues are walking away.
  • A letter published by the Edmonton Journal urges teachers to reject the proposed deal, referencing a Sept. 22 student walkout at the Legislature as a strike looms.