Question: With the Alberta Teachers’ Association no longer being responsible for professional conduct, can members expect a reduction in the ATA’s budget and member dues?
Answer: This question has been very much top of mind for me since the government passed Bill 15 two years ago. During the transition period between that legislation passing and the end of calendar year 2023, we were required to clear all outstanding investigations and conclude all hearings, so we actually saw a significant increase in discipline-related workload and related expenditures. This we were able to substantially complete by the end of December 2023.
So, your question is now very relevant: given that we are no longer investigating and prosecuting allegations of unprofessional conduct, what savings can we expect and what savings can we pass along to members?
Certainly, going forward this year, we will no longer be incurring the expense of running the various professional conduct hearing committees that were formerly part of our normal operations. We will also no longer be incurring some of the costs associated with legal council and external contract staff to conduct investigations and present at hearings. This is not an insubstantial savings: during the period we were active in investigating teacher discipline complaints, annual committee costs alone approached $200,000. There were, however, additional costs that were even more substantial, although not noted as separate budget lines. These included legal costs, which could be highly variable from year to year depending on the particular cases being pursued, and internal staff costs, which although not accounted for separately, would have been roughly equivalent to at least five FTE executive staff positions. It was also common for us to engage additional contract, professional and support staff.
So now that we are not performing this function, why wouldn’t there be a budget and fee reduction? The most important thing to realize is that although we are no longer prosecuting teachers, we have shifted to a new role of representing them in the government’s process. This requires us to dedicate roughly equivalent staff resources and expend similar amounts on legal fees.
To make matters worse, the investigation and resolution processes employed by the Alberta Teaching Profession Commissioner (ATPC) are still evolving and are very inefficient. It still remains largely unclear how the ATPC will proceed on hearings and other resolution processes, and we are aware of a dramatic increase in the number of complaints lodged and the number of teachers who are requesting and receiving Association representation.
I am quite concerned that, unless the ATPC makes substantial improvements to the way it is managing its complaint, investigation and disposition processes, we will see continuing increases in our costs. Of course, the ATPC, being part of the government, has deep pockets and, I suspect, cares a whole lot less than I do about managing and containing costs.
The bottom line is that, for the Association, the cost savings resulting from our transition away from prosecuting teachers for unprofessional conduct, have been, at very least, offset and are likely to be exceeded by the increase in costs associated with a large and growing number of potentially complex representations.
Questions for consideration in this column are welcome. Please address them to Dennis Theobald at dennis.theobald@ata.ab.ca.
ATA Executive Secretary
