Education minister 'satisfied' with new teacher discipline process. Ex-employees say it's flailing

Alberta's education minister says he's pleased with how the government's teaching commission is handling complaints of wrongdoing, despite frustration from complainants, teachers and former employees.

The Alberta Teaching Profession Commission started policing teachers, school administrators and superintendents for competence and conduct in 2023. The provincial government had passed legislation the previous year that wrested the disciplinary role from the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA), which was responsible for investigating its members' conduct for more than 80 years.

The commission now fields complaints about ATA members, as well as private and First Nations school teachers and superintendents, who were previously disciplined by another government body.

"It's a new organization and the commission is taking time to get its processes in place," Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said earlier this week. "I'm happy and satisfied with the way things are going."

The education minister has always been responsible for issuing and revoking teaching certificates based on the outcome of investigations and hearings.

A previous CBC News investigation into the commission's first 21 months of operation found employees, with years of related experience, quitting out of frustration. They said processes weren't timely or fair, and that rare cases where a teacher presented a threat to others were not being prioritized for action.

Complainants and teachers who were subject to investigation were distressed. They said they had to wait months in silence, unable to get information about the status of their cases.

"These guys move at a snail's pace," Cam McCormick, a parent who filed complaints against two teachers and a principal, told CBC News Friday.

McCormick filed the complaints to the commission earlier this year, alleging the teachers and principal failed to take action after he reported concerns of staff acting inappropriately toward his children and family.

The commission told him in July an investigator would look into the behaviour of two of the three educators, he said. But there has been radio silence since.

"Right now, it looks like it's the wild west, frankly," McCormick said of teacher regulation. "It doesn't look like there's oversight. It's not being taken seriously."

Commissioner Julia Sproule previously said her office inherited hundreds of complaints and received many new complaints while they were establishing the new commission.

As of late September, about 26 per cent of complaints the office had received so far were resolved. As of October, a new panel responsible for hearings had not run any misconduct hearings from complaints initiated under the new system.

According to the province's teacher registry, Nicolaides has suspended one educator's certificate so far in 2024, and has revoked none.

Minister shouldn't be involved in discipline: teachers' union

Nicolaides is watching the commission closely and looking for ways it can improve, such as ensuring more serious complaints are handled efficiently, he said earlier this week. But he wants to give the commission more time to establish itself.

"It's a new process for Alberta," he said. "That may invariably involve some misdeeds, but I'm confident that the process will work out."

Former commission employees say they filed human resources complaints about their experiences. Nicolaides won't disclose how many complaints were made or what happened to them.

The ATA, which represents 46,000 public educators, has now pivoted from investigating complaints against its members to representing them before the commission.

President Jason Schilling was disturbed to hear that Nicolaides feels satisfied with the process, saying teachers feel it is running poorly. Schilling noted the commission has been running for nearly two years and should be beyond growing pains.

"The whole point of the discipline process is to ensure the public that schools are safe. That the people who are working in the buildings, particularly teachers in this case, are held to a standard," Schilling said.

Some teachers under investigation are giving interviews to one investigator, only to find that the commission employee has quit, then starting from scratch with another investigator, he said.

Schilling called on the provincial government to make the discipline process arms length, free from oversight by politicians.

Opposition NDP education critic Amanda Chapman called on the government to reverse course, suggesting the new discipline process isn't working well.

"If I was the minister, I wouldn't be very happy about [delays]," Chapman said, adding that the cases are, essentially, about the health and safety of students, parents and teachers.

Each province has a different discipline model. Some, like Ontario and Saskatchewan, have a standalone regulator outside of government.

Before introducing the commission, Alberta was the last province in which the union representing teachers was also policing their conduct.