Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says the Alberta government won’t spend beyond $2.6 billion over four years in new spending to resolve a contract dispute with striking teachers.

“The $2.6 billion is what we have available,” Nicolaides said in a Wednesday interview.

“We're happy to work within that bucket to provide teachers with an increase [in wages] and help address some of the increasing complexity issues that we see in our classroom. But we do have a limited bucket that we're operating with.”

Last month, nearly 90 per cent of Alberta Teachers’ Association members voted down a contract that would cost the province’s treasury an additional $2.6 billion between 2024 and 2028.

The rejected offer included a 12 per cent general wage increase, plus an amalgamation of salary grids

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