Provincial employee salaries outpace rest of Canada

A new University of Calgary study describes Alberta’s public sector pay as the highest in the country when compared to other provinces.

In 2000, Alberta was in line with the national average of per-employee spending. Since then, however, wages have climbed continuously upwards, and Alberta is now 35 per cent above the national average, according to the report.

“Sub-federal spending on public employee wages and salaries has grown far faster in Alberta than in the country taken as a whole,” an excerpt from the paper stated.

In 2000, the cost of Alberta’s provincial general government, health and social institutions, colleges and universities and local school boards tabbed $6.8 billion. In 2010, numbers hit $14.9 billion for those same services, an increase of 119 per cent.

“Alberta’s fiscal position has deteriorated somewhat over the past decade,” said Ben Eisen, the study’s co-author.

“It was in a position of strong surpluses and now its deficits.”

The Province ranked below the national average in wages for employees in the provincial and territorial government, health and social institutions and local school boards in 2000.

The only category it was above the rest of Canada was post-secondary education. Today, Alberta leads three of the four categories.

“By comparison, in the rest of Canada, the total wage bill for these four categories of employees increased by 63 per cent, just over half as large an increase as occurred in Alberta,” the report concluded.

“We think Alberta’s fiscal positions largely needs to be fixed,” Eisen said.

­“I was very surprised by which government total spending had gone up in Alberta compared to the rest of the country.”

Now, opposition politicians are calling for the PCs to rollback burgeoning salaries.

“We are seeing what happens in other countries like Greece, Italy and our American neighbours when political leaders refuse to address the growing size of government,” said Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith.

“Instead of getting their spending under control and trimming the management burden in our public-sector, (Premier Alison) Redford and her government continue to ask Alberta families to pick up the tab.”

Liberal finance critic Hugh MacDonald said the money top managers receive is getting out of hand.

“The days of playing catch up to the cuts are over,” he said.

The Province needs standardized numbers when it comes to employees and their compensation, according to MacDonald.

“The yo-yo in human resources will hopefully stop,” he said. “There needs to be a balance.”

The study acknowledged complicating factors that should be considered, such as provinces like Ontario decentralizing social services, and population growth in Western Canada.

To view the study, visit www.policyschool.ucalgary.ca