Town of Coaldale claims union ‘grossly misrepresents’ facts

It posed the following question to residents: “Is AUPE financially illiterate, or is it deliberately distorting the facts?”

The following sections on AUPE’s alleged “myths” were provided in a press release from the Town of Coaldale:

AUPE Myth #1: The Town has “$157 million in reserve”

AUPE’s claim is false. The $157 million figure represents the total value of the Town’s physical assets — roads, sewer lines, water pipes, sidewalks, storm ponds, and facilities — not liquid cash. These are long-term infrastructure investments that depreciate over time and require ongoing maintenance. To portray them as “reserves” available for spending is either careless or deliberately deceptive. Is AUPE suggesting the Town sell off its sewer system and roads at a local garage sale to fund wage hikes?

AUPE Myth #2: The Town has “26 managers for 43 unionized staff”

AUPE’s framing is inaccurate. Not every exempt employee at the Town is a “manager.” Exempt (out-of-scope) employees include directors, managers, and the CAO, but also technical professionals such as planners, engineers, and accountants who are legally precluded from union membership under the Labour Code. Of Coaldale’s 26 exempt staff, only 15 carry some supervisory responsibilities, but managing others (whether employees or contracted service providers) is only a fraction of their work. The remaining exempt staff are professionals with no direct reports.

Equally important to recognize, however, is that AUPE ignores how many frontline services are provided through contractors and regional partnerships in Coaldale: RCMP policing, waste collection, paid-on-call fire services, water treatment, IT, and dispatch. These services involve dozens of frontline workers who do not appear in Coaldale’s “unionized staff” count, because they are not technically Town employees. Comparing “26 managers to 43 union staff” without this context is not only arbitrary, but again, deceptive.

Finally, AUPE’s comparison of the ratio between union and non-union staff at the City of Lethbridge and union and non-union staff at the Town of Coaldale is, to put it bluntly, laughable. While AUPE claims that the City has “29 out-of-scope staff and 900 permanent workers” (1 supervisor for every 31 employees) the City’s own 2025 Compensation Disclosure List reveals that there are at least 194 non-union employees currently working at the City (nearly 5 times as many out-of-scope staff as AUPE alleges).

AUPE Myth #3: Compensation reporting

AUPE has also distorted information about staff compensation. First, permanent frontline unionized employees at the Town earn an average of $70,800 annually, well above the $54,095 figure alleged by AUPE (a number that appears to have been artificially lowered by including seasonal staff). Second, the average salary for Coaldale’s exempt (non-union) employees is $114,000 — not $122,000 as claimed — and drops to $108,000 when the CAO’s salary is excluded. Third, when discussing CAO compensation, AUPE simply cherry-picked the stats. As the chart below demonstrates, Coaldale’s CAO has the second-lowest base salary and the third-lowest total compensation among comparable municipalities in Alberta.

Finally and more broadly, as the Town’s 2024 Comparative Analysis actually shows, Coaldale operates with the leanest cost structure of its peers: in 2024 the Town spent $737 per resident on salaries, wages, and benefits — 36% below the average of similar municipalities. Each year, the Town produces this analysis specifically so Town residents and other stakeholders can compare how Coaldale is performing relative to similarly-sized and neighbouring municipalities. Unfortunately for AUPE, the numbers contained in these reports simply do not lie.

To conclude: while the Town of Coaldale values all employees and has put forward proposals that balance fairness for staff with accountability to taxpayers, what cannot be accepted are distortions designed to pressure Council into approving unsustainable wage increases. Numbers without context are meaningless, and AUPE’s attempt to weaponize them does a disservice to residents.

On Wednesday, Sept. 3, the Town of Coaldale issued a lockout notice to its unionized workforce, while AUPE voted in favour of a strike.

AUPE members are set to hit the picket lines at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 6.

READ MORE: Town of Coaldale issues 72-hour lockout notice to municipal employees (Sept. 3 article)

by David Opinko

Town of Coaldale claims union ‘grossly misrepresents’ facts

What's Happening