The key difference between the NDP’s guesstimate-ridden non-plan for school re-entry, and our plan, which has the support of superintendents and was approved by the Chief Medical Officer of Health, is that our comprehensive re-entry plan is actually feasible.
In 2017 the BC Government lost a court case which required them to hire an additional 3,700 teachers. It took them 2 years to do this, and it resulted in a Canada-wide teacher shortage. In our own analysis of the NDP’s non-plan, to meet what they are proposing would require us to hire 13,000 full time teachers by September, which is just over 30 days from now. It took BC 2 years to hire a fraction of this number. It is just not possible.
The other big concern is space. We simply do not have the facilities required to meet a cap of 15 students per class. Just like with the teachers, we would also require roughly 13,000 more classrooms across Alberta by September. This is unrealistic and is not possible.
Unlike the NDP who have created an unfeasible non-plan, we accepted the recommendations provided by superintendents and school boards, worked with our medical experts, and that is all reflected in our rollout.
