Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and the province’s Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides will be holding a news conference on Wednesday to discuss how this week’s provincial budget will affect education funding.

The announcement comes a day before the budget is scheduled to be tabled in the Alberta legislature amidst government warnings that it will include a deficit of at least $6.4 billion.

Education funding and classroom makeup have been a major point of contention between the provincial government and Alberta’s 51,000 teachers.

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Teachers staged a three-week-long strike last fall that ended when the UCP passed back-to-work legislation and invoked the Canadian Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to prevent educators from challenging the legislation in court.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association is also expected to respond to the government announcement Wednesday afternoon.

The Premier and education minister are scheduled to speak at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday. Global News will livestream it in the video player above.

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