To hear Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner tell it Monday, you’d almost think there’s been no inflation in Alberta since the pandemic.
Well, Mr. Horner is a scion of Alberta’s enduring and (mostly) Conservative Horner political clan who says he “had the opportunity to buy my grandfather’s ranch,” so perhaps he didn’t notice it quite the way the rest of us have.
It’s also true that the United Conservative Party has had an active policy of wage suppression, and not just in the public sector, since before Jason Kenney became premier in 2019.
Unionized working people have noticed inflation, of course, and that is leading to proposals in bargaining for pay increases that seem large in percentage terms, but that reflect how much their bills have gone up.
Mr. Horner published a statement on the Alberta Government’s official website assailing the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees for its monetary proposal in its current round of collective bargaining on behalf of the province’s 22,000 civil servants.
Naturally, Mr. Horner’s statement began with the traditional pro forma declaration of how “Alberta’s government truly values public services and the professionalism and dedication of the people who deliver them.”
After that, though, he quickly got down to business, Conservative style. “Recently, the union representing government employees, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, told the government that they are demanding a 26 per cent wage increase over the next three years. The AUPE claims that government employee wages have fallen behind.
“Albertans, and indeed all Canadians, have not seen a wage increase of this size,” his statement continued, cutely conflating percentage increases with market rates. “The Conference Board of Canada found most working Albertans received a salary increase between 2 and 3 per cent in 2023 and 2024.”
The government statement, obviously written by one of the communications professionals assigned to Mr. Horner’s office, goes on in the same vein, insisting that the government’s offer of 7.5 per cent over four years is reasonable.
This is what is commonly known as “bargaining in the media,” and while it may or may not technically qualify as bargaining in bad faith, it’s certainly bad form.
“Given the union’s extreme wage positions, working towards a fair and reasonable settlement in a timely manner will be difficult,” the minister’s statement huffily concluded. “The Alberta government will not increase taxes or cut programs, services, or workers to give unprecedented salary increases that will result in pay well above market rates.”
The latter sentence, it says here, amounts to confirmation the government is not bargaining in good faith. That said, I’m just a blogger, not the Alberta Labour Relations Board.
Mr. Horner’s statement, said Athabasca University labour relations professor Bob Barnetson, “is wildly disingenuous.”
“Workers have jobs to pay their bills, and the bills have gone up about 20 per cent between 2020 and 2024,” he noted in an email. “How can Horner say he is looking at the evidence when he is clearly ignoring the impact of inflation on workers’ ability to afford things, like food and housing?”
Yes, Dr. Barnetson added, 26 per cent sounds like a lot, “but after a decade of almost no increases and five years of rampant inflation, it is an entirely reasonable ask. Why should public-sector workers have to subsidize the provision of government services through wages that constantly shrink due to inadequate cost-of-living increases?”
For its part, AUPE accused the minister of making “inappropriate statements.”
“We are disappointed to see the government make unwarranted and unhelpful statements,” said AUPE President Guy Smith. “Negotiations should take place in good faith and at the bargaining table, not in the press.”
“The government has been aware of the union’s monetary proposals since we made them on March 6,” Mr. Smith noted. “We will hold to our demands as they are fair and reasonable. The cost of living has increased for everyone, and every worker has the right to fair, livable compensation from their employers.”
“AUPE will continue negotiating in good faith in spite of the government’s decision,” Mr. Smith promised.
A note on the Horner political clan
Speaking of the Horner political clan, as we were, The Canadian Press once described the Horners as “one of the first families of Canadian politics.”
Jack Horner – Nate’s grandfather – was a successful Conservative MP from 1958 to 1977, whereupon he crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the Liberal cabinet of Pierre Trudeau!
He remained there until his riding’s voters kicked him out in 1979. (They don’t talk much about that in rural Alberta anymore, for fear of frightening the children.)
Apparently, he was known as “Cactus Jack,” although that was before he joined the Liberals so presumably it was not because his friends and relatives thought he was a you-know-what for crossing the floor.
Nate Horner is related to Alberta deputy premiers Hugh “Doc” Horner (appointed by premier Peter Lougheed after also serving three terms in the House of Commons) and Doug Horner (Hugh’s son, appointed by Alison Redford).
Jack and Hugh’s brother Norval Horner, a one-term Member of Parliament, represented a Saskatchewan riding, as did a cousin, Albert Horner, a four-term MP also from Saskatchewan.
Ralph Horner – father of Jack, Hugh, and Norval – never managed to get elected, but he was appointed to the Senate by Conservative prime minister R.B. Bennett, whose government created the CBC and the Bank of Canada.
As a result, at one point in Canadian history, Ralph, Jack, Hugh and Albert were all serving in the Parliament of Canada at the same time. Talk about the four horsemen!
Norval’s son Byron Horner ran for the federal Conservatives in British Columbia in 2019.
This afternoon, predictably, Nate Horner complained about the federal budget. But that’s not exactly news, is it? So let’s not waste readers’ time reciting what he had to say about that.
Just putting it out there that if the union members had received 2% raises over the decade of “almost no increases,” it would work out to a 22% increase over 10 years. So in that sense, this is definitely an attempt to catch up.
Troyliss: In many years Alberta public sector employees received no percentage increases to wages, often known in LR circles as zero-per-cent increases, which always strikes me as illogical since any such agreement is not an increase. DJC
Whatever his political pedigree, Horner’s math is not so good. A 3% increase per year over 4 years is 12%, not 7.5%. Average wages in Canada have been going up by over 4% to 5% recently. So I’d be surprised if the Alberta average was 2% to 3%, although that might explain part of the feeling of falling behind a lot since the UCP took over.
People at lower income levels have been hard hit by increases in food and rent costs. I recently saw some items in the grocery store that went up by 50% to 60% over the last few years and that is not uncommon. Even the provincial PST on fuel has recentlt increased by a big percentage, of course after the election.
Maybe such increases are not as noticeable or more manageable for those earning a cabinet ministers salary, but for most average Albertans they are noticeable. So Horner should not be surprised people are trying to catch up or keep up, especially after the last few years of high inflation.
Dave: This is an example of labour relations math, which is the same as political math, sometimes exactly the same. Employers often fail to calculate the compounding effect of annual percentage wage increases because they want voters to think they’re being more parsimonious than they are, parsimony being considered a virtue on the right, except when it’s not. Unions often go along with this (whilst explaining it quietly and privately to their members) because our current labour relations model, intended to discourage unions to act as agents of social change but simply to stick to their members’ knitting, makes them willing to do anything to get the best deal possible for their members. DJC
TBA government members have consistently demonstrated problems with simple arithmetic. Probably becasue of drinking all that frac water.
So if I’m reading this right—
Nate Horner is against the people getting more “powerful paycheques ” ??
Maybe they need PP to come in and talk some “common sense ” to him.
HSAA wage increases the last 10 years, +8.5%. CPI with energy costs over the last 10 years, +32%. I believe the UCP are about to be taught a lesson in Supply & Demand economics. BC Ambulance pays 20-30% higher than AHS currently AND their premier didn’t spend the last 10 years spreading bullshit and horseradish about healthcare emergencies. Buh bye!
Importing paramedics from Alberta to B.C. Sounds good to me. Now housing in the lower mainland and Victoria is expensive, however, not all parts are. Now of course you’d want to stay out of fire areas, but Vancouver Island, from Duncan up, is lovely and oh so less expensive. No snow, o.k. for a week usually We are also very short of construction workers. B.C. is going to be short several thousand in the next few year, about 10K There is also a drive to have more women join construction. Working as an electrician or plumber, elevator installer
If Alberta doesn’t want to pay their nurses an adequate salary, there are places in B.C. which can and do, some of those places are close to great skiing and surfing. \
people like Horner just don’t get it don’t want to. Its his sense of entitlement and feelings of superiority. In b.C. every time there is an increase in the min. wage every organization representing small business carries on like the world is going to end, their business can not carry on and pay higher wages, yada yada yada. So what this translates to is these businesses can not continue unless their employees work for wages which are below the cost of living. to keep their business afloat their employees need to go to the food bank because they are not being paid enough. That is not a business. Its a hobby. They need to get out of business. same with the Government, they don’t want to raise taxes to increase wages and benefits so what the government is telling public emploiyees, it is more important for our businesses to pay less tax even if it means you can’t pay rent, put your kid in organized sports, need to go to the food bank, et.c. That is no way to run a government. In many small towns, businesses count on government employees earning a decent salary, it keeps their businesses afloat. Horner looks like he’s never missed a meal and his cloth is expensive and his skin is smooth, hair well cut and clothing, expensive, but he would deny government employees an opporutunity to live a decent life. horner is so out of the real world its going to be very sad if he has to deal with it as families do in Alberta
The UCP are not helping things. One problem after another with them.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-inflation-rent-march-2024-vs-canada-national-rate-1.7175285
What would “General Strike” say all the unions should do!
Preen there, Done that. Not advisable. Not much gained. Community groups want to dictate to the Unions, when the Unions pay the costs of a General Strike, the community activists don’t.
In B.C. in the 1980s when mini WAC was Premier, he implemented a “restraint budget”. It did not go over well. There were day long protests, mass rallies at stadiums, but unless all workers are involved, it won’t go anywhere. Yes, it sent a message but the work required didn’t really compensate for what workers got. Unless you’ve organized one, you have no idea how much work they are. If you’re unhappy with wages, vote with your feet and leave and work elsewhere. YOu spend a few years researching UPC, who gets what contracts, you organize, you keep their fuck ups in the media. Now of course if there is a real lack of health care in alberta, some will die and the ones who live will get the idea, compare life spans from proince to province Also if its general strike, for union members those sort of strikes can be illegal and cost them a great deal of money in the way of fines. Some times labour leaders even go to jail.
BREAKING NEWS!! DANI TO MOVE ALBERTA’S CAPITAL TO..? Yah it’s a joke, or is it?
This government thinks that $700 a month is more than enough for the indolent workers of Alberta. Pay them $2000 and they’ll head to the nearest den of iniquity where they’ll binge on Cheezies, cartoons and illegal drugs. Look for the orange powder on their muzzles as proof.
You can’t make this stuff up in Alberta. Was $700 a month a living wage 50 years ago?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/cerb-getson-comments-1.5744158
Lets try to remember, in 1972, the federal government paid a mid range clerk $450.00 month. You could buy a car for $1400, Early 70s in Kitsolano a one bedroom apartment sold for $32K. A house in Richmond would sell for $25K on a quarter acre lot. Today that lot will sell for well over a million and the house removed
If you worked in private offices the salary women earned to start was $250 a month and rent was frequently about $125 a month for a one bedroom
If health care workers do not have substantial increases expect a number of them to leave the province.
My grandparents bought a house in Calgary in 1945 for $4,500. My aunt sold that house in 1980 for $80,000 I think.
It’s probably much much higher now, more because of the area it’s in than the house itself.
Fifty years ago you say? I’ll volunteer: in 1973/74 I was a first year high school teacher making $9,000. Maybe that’s why I got out of teaching.
There is no shortage of cash for UCP insiders like Preston Manning ($250,000 to put together a word salad plus a $2 million expense account). Every day brings forth a new sole source contract to yet another UCP donor or insider. How much did Marlaina spend to take her husband and various other hangers-on to Dubai for an ultra luxury getaway? Add in all the people on Marlaina’s staff who are very well paid to do almost nothing. Yet when it comes time to pay front line workers a reasonable wage the UCP is suddenly concerned about spending. Once again Marlaina and company set the bar lower for utter hypocrisy.
Public Servant— according to Ricochet:
The UCP government’s 16 delegation to the conference, which occurred from Nov 30 to Dec 13th, expensed at least $170,000 from the public purse on hotels, meals, transportation, parking and mileage related to the trip ,expense filings reveal, with more than half that figure consisting of $90,000, spent on hotels. Along with other questionable expenses and discrepancies over receipts.
“What I find outrageous is taxpayers were funding a greenwashing tour. We’re essentially funding folks who are there to lobby for private interests, but with public money.”
Interesting read…..
Randi-lee: Originally, as I recall, there were more than 100 people identified on a federal list as being part of the Alberta delegation who showed up in Dubai. They’re obviously not included in the government’s accounting, so who paid for them, and why? Or perhaps I should say, for what? I keep meaning to dig back into that question, but there are only so many hours in a day. DJC
This reports preliminary numbers of 633 for Canada including government, Indigenous groups, NGOs, and private corporations. And 18 for Alberta gov’t including Smith’s husband.
I guess governments would just report expenses for politicians and government employees, and Canada also paid for some Indigenous and other delegates.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada-spent-1-4-million-cop28-delegation
Lots of fossil fuel companies and lobbyists paying their own way, probably, and I’m not sure they would all be counted in Canada’s delegation.
It would be interesting to compare the expenses paid by businesses and by NGOs to the gov’t ones.
There also seem to be a lot of Smiths in Alberta news these days!
Lefty: And no love lost among ’em, either. DJC
Of the Smithyfit type?
Whoa….check your public sector privilege. Excessive government spending and the requisite monetizing of government deficits by central banks makes everyone poorer. What makes public servants so special that they should be spared the ravages of inflation?
Doug, what makes public servants so special that they should be spared the ravages of inflation? No one should be subjected to the “ravages of inflation”. When parents don’t make enough money and are subject to the ravages of inflation, children are subject to stress they don’t deserve, they may not have adequate health care, food, shelter, clothing, dental care, etc. Now if that is what you want, perhaps you ought to give it a try. Excessive government spending is rarely for the benefit of the rank and file with in the government services.
Not paying government workers sufficiently results in them leaving, then who is going to do the work. We have seen that with people in the medical field. there is one group of government workers in B.C. where there were insufficient staff, to the extent it was difficult to keep operating as they should. Government rang up the Union and suggested they open the contract so they could give them raises so new staff would apply for the job. In B.C. some doctors are retiring early or just leaving because they are not adequately compensated. The government then raised their pay and viola, 700 more family doctors. Money talks, bullshit walks.
As to money, lets not forget there were thousands of federal government workers who did not receive their pay cheques for months, even years, because Harper bought a lousy computer system to pay government workers. It still hasn’t been fixed. What did federal government workers do: they continued to come to work and do their jobs. Some lost their homes–couldn’t pay their mortgages, they went into debt.
Government workers are simply your neighbours, etc.
its when governments hire people on contract from outside the work force that we start to see very interesting salaries.
Cost of living raises without increases in productivity create a positive feedback in driving yet more inflation. That is why inflation is so horrible and escaping the death spiral might require something as severe as Paul Volcker’s interest rate hikes in the early 80’s. Governments played with fire by running deficits and central banks threw fuel on it by monetizing those deficits rather than allowing interests rates to rise. Wage settlements below inflation are absolutely necessary and will likely continue until governments balance their budgets.
What makes public servants so special? I can go to BC and earn 30% more than I do in Alberta. Average AB pay raise in 2023 was 4%, my last 4 year contract didn’t add up to 4% over 4 years. Last 10 years; +8.5% in pay raises, CPI with energy costs +32%. Keep kicking people in the teeth and they eventually tire of it.
Go to BC and pay 3X the housing costs and PST
How about those utility and insurance rates Doug? I hear math is hard, for some. Already scouting for homes in the Kootenays and the Island, my little inner city heritage home has me in good shape.
Nelson would be lovely
From Ladysmith up, on the Island is less expensive.
If wages don’t keep up with inflation, workers will leave. They can’t afford to support the province. They have kids, who are not cheap.
B.C. has had the PST for as long as I’ve been alive or I’ve paid it ever since I got an allowance. I’m fine with it. When the government taxes, there are services for the taxpayers. Alberta has always had oil which other provinces didn’t expect for off shore in the Maritimes.
Doug, your line about no increase in productivity, can’t do raises thing. In government how do you plan to increase productivity? A lot of it is paper wok and that takes time. You have Customs officers. How do you want them to increase productivity Just wave all those cars and truck through with loads of guns and drugs. Sure, no problem. Military, would you like them to take a pass on national emergencies. They came to B.C. during horrible flooding. You can only sandbag so fast and move people so fast.
Yes the cost of housing is higher but Alberta has Smith and the UPC. You can’t put a value on good government and bad government is very expensive not just in money but lives.
If people don’t want to pay taxes or pay very low taxes, there are all sorts of countries which have that. They also have corruption, poverty, no health care, sure, check out some of the Central American countries or for that matter, South American countries. If you want a decent standard of living go live in some of the high tax countries in western Europe. As Mom always said, you get what you pay for
As said before, Dingy Smith is trying to emulate Ralph Klein. The big difference is many of us lived through the so called austerity under Klein and no longer see that most of should suffer to load the pockets of a few. Under the PC’s and now UCP’s the lack of proper cost of living raises has been going on for decades. Much of the austerity was done on the backs of hard working civil servants, but still the PC / UCP are very intent on breaking public service unions. Note: In a recent study Alberta has by far the lowest percent of unionized workers in all of Canada. This demonstrates their clear intent. It’s like: UCP would rather dictate than negotiate!
Nepotism can only carry Nate Horner so far, as he has no accounting or finance credentials. It’s entirely evident that he is clueless and needs to be sent back to the ranch, where he can spread BS anyway he chooses.
Don’t call him an elite tho! He’s just been a member of one of the first families of the province since before he was born.
Horner is also a liar; from OXFAM CANADA :
In Canada, the wealth of billionaires has increased by 57.1 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020. The 41 richest billionaires own as much as the poorest 40 per cent of Canadians.
Guess what Nate, people noticed. Liar.
Privatize the profits and socialize the the losses. Why is that paradigm so difficult for Alberta voters? Dani’s new, old deal! Vote UCP! Your mileage may vary!
You forgot to mention the whole Horner family includes Bill Flanagan (nephew to the famous floor crosser mentioned above), President of the UofA. Who says Albertans aren’t royalists?
I’ve noticed from my time in Alberta that if you ask Albertan’s they’ll tell you they don’t need no nanny state telling them what to do. Except when it comes to how you should treat your poorest neighbors most are lined up like ducks quaking in unison and excepting all edicts from the precious leader.
I seem to remember that there was a Horner in Allison Redford’s government who was also a Minister of Finance. He also had a tendency for accounting shennanigans and weirdly optimistic or pessimistic views to suit whatever narrative he wanted to apply.
It must be great being in the Horner clan, because reality isn’t so much an existence as much as it’s Play-Doh!
The anti-worker animus of the UCP goes back much further than the party has been around. Negative branding of the province’s unionized workers was a successful strategy of Conservative governments going back decades. And it seems to have worked well for them.
You, David, were involved in a legal strike 24 years ago at The Calgary Herald where the company boss — a certain Conrad Black — openly mocked the concept of good faith bargaining. When the union complained, the deputy minister of labour casually shrugged her shoulders and noted “there is no political will” to do anything about it.
The government ignored legitimate issues raised by unionized workers then, and today’s provincial government will do that in spades today.
Good luck, AUPE.
Andy: All true. Every word. DJC
The price of housing as a percentage of median household income has risen dramatically since the 1990s. In Feb 1999, the average price of a home in Canada was 3.4 times the median household income. In Edmonton, that ratio was quite a bit lower (2.6x), while in Calgary it was only slightly lower (3.2x). In Toronto and Vancouver it was more like 5 times, while Montréal’s ratio closely tracked the national number.
The ratio began to rise sharply in Vancouver a bit more than a decade ago, and in Toronto soon after. The Canada-wide ratio spiked between about six and seven years ago. Here in Alberta, it has remained relatively flat in both Calgary and Edmonton, and now sits at about 4x in Edmonton and 5x in Calgary. So house prices in both Calgary and Edmonton are only marginally inflated from 1999, when taken in terms of household incomes.
https://themeasureofaplan.com/canadian-housing-affordability/