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Questioning Raises

CTF says thousands of post-secondary employees collected bigger paycheques during downturn

Jun 1, 2021 | 11:31 AM

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is releasing documents showing more than 11,500 university and college employees in Alberta getting a pay raise in 2020 and costing taxpayers and students $29 million.

“One way for universities and colleges to help struggling taxpayers and students would be to stop handing out pay raises that we can’t afford,” said Franco Terrazzano, Alberta Director for the CTF, in a press release. “The government is right to look for savings at Alberta’s colleges and universities and it should push these employees to help share in the burden and take a pay cut.”

Pay raises since 2015, when the downturn in Alberta began, cost $218 million, according to documents the CTF obtained from post-secondary institutions through freedom of information requests.

The findings are included in a report released by the CTF on Monday.

Officials further note that while compensation paid to all workers in Alberta has declined by about 10 per cent from 2014 through 2020, total compensation paid to post-secondary employees has increased by nearly nine per cent, according to Alberta government budgets.

The CTF says Alberta spends $36,510 per post-secondary student, according to the Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta’s finances – $10,000 more per student than what other large provinces spend on average.

“It’s not fair to force struggling families and students to pay a bigger bill so professors and bureaucrats can collect a bigger paycheque,” said Terrazzano. “All of these pay raises show that the cupboards aren’t bare at these schools and that there’s clearly room for savings.”

According to the report, there were 151 RDC employees that received a pay raise in 2020, costing $118,472. Between 2015-2020, the cost of college employee pay raises totalled $4,091,837.

At Olds College, 135 employees received a pay increase in 2020, costing $161,056. Between 2015-2020, the cost of college employee pay raises totalled $1,486,613.

Red Deer College President, Dr. Peter Nunoda, tells rdnewsNOW in a statement, “Red Deer College is proud of the contributions our faculty and staff make in providing our students with quality applied learning opportunities and services to help them achieve their educational goals. Our employees are the face of Red Deer College and important to our continued success.

At RDC, we have worked conscientiously, and in partnership, with our unions and Faculty Association that represent our workforce under the direction of provincial mandates to negotiate collective agreements that are fair and that consider our stakeholders and taxpayers.

Our employees are valued partners as we navigate these challenging times. Together, we strive to effectively serve our students and our region, while preparing for a sustainable future as a polytechnic institution.”