Five months ago, when the ULFA negotiating team wrote our April 10, 2026 blog, we anticipated it would be the last one in the bargaining round that ended with ratification of the 2024-2028 Academic Staff Collective Agreement (ASCA). However, it has since come to light that the Board team now disagrees that the new ASCA maintains ULFA’s long-standing 100% coverage for physiotherapy as part of the benefits provided in Schedule B. In this post, we wish to inform the ULFA membership of what happened, and where this matter stands at present.
In our March 30, 2026 post, we shared several documents with ULFA members regarding the contents of the then-tentative new agreement. Those documents included the proposed Memorandum of Settlement agreed to by the bargaining parties on March 26, 2026 and two summaries.
- The concise summary outlined the extent to which items in the membership-approved ULFA bargaining mandate were achieved. Under mandate item 4. Increase health, vision, and dental care benefits, the concise summary stated that “Improved benefits include . . . no physician’s note required to access 100% physiotherapy coverage; for all other paramedicals, increased coverage to a combined total of $1,000/participant/year under the Alberta Blue Cross (ABC) managed fee guide for per-visit covered amounts.”
- The detailed summary outlined the changes or outcomes achieved within each article and schedule that was opened in the 2024 bargaining round. Under Schedule B, the detailed summary (p. 13) stated that “Per the Board’s Dec 11, 2025 letter on Schedule B, improve the benefits plans as follows: . . . retain 100% physiotherapy coverage but remove the requirement for physician’s note.”
The ASCA and its predecessor agreements have never spelled out the details of the health-related benefits provisions for ULFA members. In general, Schedule B identifies eligibility and broad categories of health benefits such as extended health, vision care and dental care, while coverage details are specified in a separate document prepared by the benefits provider, Alberta Blue Cross. Importantly, at no point did the parties discuss the idea of reducing ULFA’s 100%-covered physiotherapy benefit at a bargaining or mediation session in the 2024 bargaining round.
The only change to the physiotherapy benefit discussed during negotiations was the removal of the requirement for a physician’s note. This change was one of the recommendations sent by the Joint Benefits Committee (JBC) to the bargaining parties in March 2025, and was first suggested by a Board appointee to the JBC.
The ULFA team understood the Board team’s October 24, 2025 proposal package and accompanying letter on Schedule B to leave ULFA’s 100% coverage for physiotherapy unchanged. More specifically, as the Board team’s letter on Schedule B identified “areas of improvement we are proposing” and the Board team did not mention any proposed benefits coverage reductions at the October 24 bargaining session, the ULFA team did not understand physiotherapy to be included in item 4.b, “All other practitioners [besides Mental Health Practitioners] increase to $1000 combined managed fee guide (cost).”
That said, during our subsequent careful review of the Board team’s October 24, 2025 package, it did occur to the ULFA team that item 4.b in the Board team’s Schedule B letter, on its face, could be interpreted as including physiotherapy within the $1,000 combined coverage cap for “all other practitioners.” This concern led our team on November 3, 2025, to seek email confirmation from the Board team that our understanding was correct:
“One question has come up in our discussions that would be helpful to have clarity on ahead of next week. We understand it to be the case that the Board proposal on Schedule B does not remove the 100% coverage for physiotherapy. Can you please confirm [sic] that this [sic] is the case?”
The email response from the Board team on November 6, 2025 included the following:
“I am checking in with HR on this issue, but I can offer the following from a bargaining team perspective: We did not propose, as a cost savings, a reduction in the physiotherapy coverage; it would stay as it is now as far as we are concerned. I am not clear on the current coverage, but if it is 100% now, then it would continue that way.”
After receiving the Board team’s November 6, 2025 reply, for the remainder of the bargaining sessions and the mediation process that followed, the ULFA team received no communication or other indication from the Board team that they were proposing to reduce ULFA’s 100% coverage for physiotherapy. The ULFA team therefore believed the matter had been settled through the November 3 and November 6, 2025 emails exchanged with the Board team, which confirmed both parties understood that the 100% physiotherapy coverage would remain unchanged.
The new ASCA came into effect on April 7, 2026, but it was not until the end of that month that the ULFA team learned of the Board team’s change in position regarding 100% coverage for physiotherapy. On April 30, 2026, our team received an email from a Board team member that included the following:
“One area of note that our benefits team picked up on in one of your blog posts is the entitlement to physiotherapy. In case there is any confusion physiotherapy no longer needs any physicians note, however it does fall under the “all other practitioners” limitation so is capped at the Alberta Blue Cross managed fee guide and the $1,000 per year for “all other practitioners” category.”
Through the established weekly labour relations meetings involving ULFA and Board representatives, ULFA has sought to resolve this dispute about our physiotherapy coverage. To date, the Board has maintained its new position that coverage for ULFA’s physiotherapy benefit is now reduced for eligible participants to a $1,000 annual maximum combined with all other paramedical services.
To seek reinstatement of the 100% coverage for physiotherapy that the ULFA team believes was retained in the new agreement ratified by both sides, ULFA has therefore begun the grievance process. ULFA also filed an unfair labour practice complaint on July 10, 2026 with the Alberta Labour Relations Board (ALRB). ULFA replied to the Board’s request for particulars regarding the complaint on August 6, 2026. The Board responded to ULFA’s reply on August 13, 2026.
The ALRB hosted a case management meeting on August 26, 2026 attended by representatives of both parties and their respective legal counsels. The meeting discussion resulted in the following agreed process:
- Resolution conference: October 6, 2026, to be chaired by the ALRB, to see if the parties can resolve the dispute.
- Board’s deferral request: If the conference is not successful in settling the dispute, the ALRB will next consider the Board’s request to defer the proceedings (until completion of a planned leave). This request will be handled via written submissions having the following deadlines:
- October 20, 2026 – Board’s submission
- November 3, 2026 – ULFA’s response
- November 10, 2026 – Board’s reply
- Complaint hearing: In the event that the Board’s deferral request is dismissed, an ALRB hearing to consider ULFA’s complaint is tentatively booked for February 15 to 18, 2027.
While the outcome of the grievance and ALRB complaint processes are unknown at this time, we encourage ULFA members who rely on physiotherapy to save their receipts. Our hope is that we are ultimately successful in re-establishing ULFA members’ long-standing 100% coverage for physiotherapy in our benefits plan, which we did not agree to forego during negotiations. Members should also save receipts from other paramedicals if any physiotherapy claims have put them close to or over the new $1000 cap. We encourage any ULFA Members who have questions or concerns with respect to this issue to reach out to Brendan or Meghan in the ULFA office.
