A dozen Alberta school boards still need to have collective agreements in place by the end of January before a tentative pension deal between the province and the Alberta Teachers’ Association can be ratified.

The province has agreed to cover $2.1 billion of the teachers’ unfunded pension liability in return for five years without strikes.

Twelve of Alberta’s 62 school boards were held up by an outstanding Labour Relations Board ruling that was released in late December.

The province’s education minister, Ron Liepert, tells the Calgary Herald that he’s optimistic all the agreements will be in place by the end of the month.

For background information on this story, click here to read Alberta Teachers Tentatively Approve Pension Deal.

To comment on this story, email craig.sebastiano@rci.rogers.com.