On November 17, a small group of students from the University of Alberta Education Students' Association gathered on the steps of the Legislature as part of the Alberta Teachers' Association's "Stop the Cuts" campaign. Minister Hancock met with representatives from the students' association, and then spoke to the students about their concerns.

Minister Hancock: So what is it you want me to know?

Student: Will there be jobs when we graduate?

Minister Hancock: Well, there's no guarantees. But as I said to my son eight or nine years ago — when there were real problems and there weren't jobs in the area and people were saying to him, "What are you in education for? There are no jobs in the area" — my message to him was always, "If you're passionate about being a teacher, if that's what you want to do with life, then get an education degree and there will be jobs for people who are passionate about it and want to do it. And if you don't get a job, you've still got a good education that's going to be useful for you.

But we have a rising student population in this province for the first time in a long time. Last year, this year, and over the next couple of years, we're projecting an increase in the student population. So there's going to be jobs for teachers!

Student: So how do cuts coming when we have a rising population in our schools — how does that work?

Minister Hancock: Well I didn't actually talk to anybody about cuts coming — that's a fiction that others have made. We had to do an $80 million adjustment this year and we asked school boards to take their portion of it. I took $26 million out of my own budget, which is about 25 per cent of the budget. But the rest we asked school boards to take out of their reserves and not to take out of the classroom. And to the best of my knowledge, that's exactly what's happened. They've taken it out of their reserves and not out of the classroom.

Going forward, I've talked to school board trustees and superintendents about the fact that we are in a fiscal situation where we need to be prudent about it. There will be a budget coming. At the time that I met with them, I didn't know what was going to be in the budget — I still don't know for sure what's going to be in the budget — but it's prudent for us to sit down and talk about what we can do better. Use the opportunity for transformational change. Look at what we're doing and say, "Is this getting the results that we want to get? If not, should we be changing?" That's the discussion I started.

Somebody else translated it into, "It's $340 million of education cuts." I haven't been talking about that. In fact, when I was asked about numbers, I said, "I don't want to talk about numbers. I want to talk about what we're doing. What kind of changes do we need to make to provide the education system that we need for tomorrow?" And we're planning in a timeframe where, as I said, the school population is going up. So it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for school boards to lay off teachers, or not hire teachers, when we're going to need teachers.

But having said that, there could be pressure in the budget. I mean, even if we stayed even, we have to find more money for pensions and we have to find more money for salary increases. So it's not an easy job to do, but it's a job I've got to do.

And it's a job that we need to do together, in terms of what you're learning about being teachers and how we can actually transform the education system to the type of system we need to have for the future. Because we know there's been significant change in technology, in the world economy and how we play in that world economy. And we know that education is fundamental to Alberta being successful in a global economy and for Albertans to be global citizens.

Student: We need the reassurance of that. It's nice to hear you saying that we are an important part of the future. [laughs]

Minister Hancock: I've been saying that for the last eighteen months. I'll be saying it for as long as I am Education Minister. I said it before I became Education Minister, and I'll continue saying it. That's what Inspiring Education is all about: engaging the public in a value discussion about the role education plays in making sure that Alberta has a place in the global economy, and that our children and grandchildren can live here and be global citizens. And if we ever are going to get beyond the volatility of an oil and gas economy, we need education so we can sell knowledge and knowledge products.

Can I guarantee you that every one of you is going to get a job? No. But if you're passionate about it, if it's what you want to do, if you're going to be a good teacher, you'll demonstrate that and you'll get a job, because we're going to need teachers. The projections show we're going to need every teacher that graduates, we'll need to stop many teachers from retiring, and we'll still need to hire some teachers from other areas to keep up with our current class size policy.

Now that's not to say that — as I've said to the school boards, everything is under discussion. We need to talk about what is it achieving, and if we can't demonstrate that what we're doing is effective, then we need to change it. That's the kind of discussion I believe the minister should have with the education stakeholder community and the boards.

So I'm not going to apologize for a little bit of disruption this fall because I went out well before a budget and said to school boards, "It would be prudent for us to plan our future, instead of waiting for a budget to drop in February and say, 'This is what you get this year. Adjust for it.'" That's what we did with the $80 million, and they didn't like it. I didn't like it, but it was something I had to do. I'm not going to do that next year. Next year we're going to be planning for it, we're going to understand where we're going, and we're learning from our Inspiring Education dialogues what the future looks like going forward so that any decision we take is leading to that future.

Student: Where are cuts going to come from if you're encouraging cuts?

Minister Hancock: I'm not encouraging cuts. But again, teachers retire every year, so new teachers are needed to replace them. The system is growing, so new teachers are needed. But I don't want to leave you with any false impressions. Just to stay even — just if nothing changed in the budget — I'd have to find a considerable amount of money for the increased pension obligations and unless we can make some arrangement with the ATA and others, we'll have to find money for wage increases. If the budget stayed at zero, to the extent that incomes went up, jobs go down.