Alberta Legislature

By Lara Fominoff

Alberta public sector salaries inflated compared with other provinces, says Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Jan 14, 2020 | 4:12 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Many Alberta public sector salaries are not only higher than those in comparable provinces, but in some cases they’re tens of thousands of dollars more than anywhere west of Ontario.

That’s according to numbers released from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation obtained through Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests.

CTF Alberta Director Franco Terrazzano says the government data shows that most Alberta Government employees are paid more than in several other provinces.

Part 1: CTF Alberta Public Sector Salaries

“Many of the government employees not only are they paid more in Alberta, but many tend to be paid significantly more in Alberta. So, more than half of these occupations are paid more than $10,000 more in Alberta than in those other provinces.”

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Part 2: CTF Alberta Public Sector Salaries

He says, as the provincial government tries to pull the province out of its $70 billion debt, the data shows that not only are cuts to labour costs needed, but they’re warranted, especially since half of the province’s operating budget goes to pay salaries. He sites Premier Jason Kenney’s “Blue Ribbon Panel” as the starting point for the CTF’s inquiries.

“Over 10 per cent of the occupations are receiving more than $20,000 more in Alberta. A senior museum scientist in Alberta is eligible to make nearly $126,000. And if that sounds like a large sum of money to you, it’s because that’s about $18,000 more than in the other provinces.”

When asked about other types of government spending, including the provincial government’s $30 million “War Room,” and the billions of dollars in tax cuts for some oil companies like Husky Terrazzano agreed that some of that, too needed to be reigned in.

“The government does need to address its spending problem. And this was made clear by the Blue-Ribbon Panel. They noted that the Alberta Government has a $10 billion spending problem…but there’s many other different areas where the government needs to look at spending more efficiently, with healthcare… scrapping all forms of corporate welfare, including those petrochemical firm handouts.”

However, he adds that the business tax reduction was ‘good policy.’

“That is part of the solution, that is not part of the problem to get Albertans back to work. And of course, that’s going to take time, but that is the right way to get an economy firing on all cylinders, by reducing taxes on job creation.”

Bottom line, claims Terrazzano, is that in order to reduce its deficit the government must reduce its compensation costs.

“Working Albertans outside of government have taken it on the chin over the last few years. And instead of the tax relief, that was needed the most, taxpayers have been forced to pay over 10,000 additional government employees and government compensation costs that have gone up by over $3 billion during the downturn.”