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The costs moved away from employees having a presumptive right to refuse work that appears hazardous, which companies needed to then repair and were not able to discipline the workers for declining that work. Now, the work should present excessive or immediate risk, that makes it harder for workers to justify rejections and even discourages them from refusing unsafe operate in the top place.

Let's talk about the size of the public sector. In their first budget, which they released in the fall of 2019, the UCP government reported that in the 20182019 budget plan year, there was the equivalent of 210,407 individuals working full-time in the public sector in Alberta. That includes federal government workers, teachers, nurses, postsecondary employees, and so on.

That indicates 3,679 full-time workers (or their comparable) lost their tasks in just two years. Let's have a look specifically at those numbers for post-secondary education. 2018201933,5882020202132,890Change-698 What we see here is that throughout the very first 2 years of the UCP's very first term in government, they got rid of approximately 700 full-time equivalent positions in the post-secondary system, which could consist of both teaching and support workers.

Because 20202021, however, the number of postsecondary workers has actually increased by 851 full-time equivalent positions. 2018201933,5882025202633,741 Change153 Yet when we consider the loss of nearly 700 positions in the very first 2 years, we are entrusted a boost of simply 153 full-time comparable positions in post-secondary over the last 5 years.

Not 4.6%. 0.46%. Less than half a percent. Plus, those 153 full-time equivalent positions were for all post-secondary organizations integrated across the province. The annual average combined increase for Alberta postsecondary organizations has had to do with 31 positions per year for the entire province. The ratio of postsecondary employees to the total public sector has decreased, going from accounting for 15.96% of all public sector employees in 20182019 to 14.93% in 20252026, basically dropping a full percentage point.

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However taking a look at simply the portion of total public sector employees doesn't always provide us a complete picture of staffing levels. After all, if they increased the variety of full-time comparable positions in all other public sector locations, that would shake off the ratio of post-secondary workers to all public sector workers.

Alberta's population in between March 2019 and March 2025 increased by practically 15.5%, far outmatching development in the postsecondary sector. 2018201933,5882025202633,14420252026 adjusted38,796 Difference5,206 If we had kept up with population development, we would have had over 5,200 more individuals working in post-secondary last year than we did. And that's presuming we even had sufficient numbers in 20182019 to begin with.

How numerous of you have ever heard an Alberta political leader claim that we have the greatest earnings in Canada? You see, the greatest mean hourly wage in Canada in fact goes to British Columbia, which has actually held that area because 2023.

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They had actually typically been in 2nd place behind BC, and occasionally 3rd location behind Ontario. Even when Alberta had the greatest salaries, that figure was covering up a distressing pattern that everybody appeared to be overlooking. You see, BC didn't all of a sudden soar to top place in regards to wages.

In 2014, BC in fact had the fourth greatest average hourly salaries of any of the provinces, behind Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan. A year later, Newfoundland and Labrador dropped from 2nd location to 4th place, pushing BC up to third. At the beginning of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic started, BC surpassed Saskatchewan, which had fallen to third location.

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And BC has actually been top almost on a monthly basis ever considering that. Had actually anybody been taking note, they 'd have observed that while Alberta's wages kept climbing up, so did BC's, however BC's earnings were growing much faster than Alberta's. Between January 2014 and January 2025, BC's average wage increased by $10 an hour, the biggest increase of all the provinces.

Throughout this same 11-year period, Alberta saw the fourth largest increase in the customer cost index: 30.95%. During this same 11-year period, Alberta saw the 4th biggest increase in the customer price index: 30.95%.

Alberta was one of only 2 provinces where median earnings increased more gradually than inflation, and of the 2, we performed the worst. This implies that Alberta employees saw the largest reduction in real earnings in the nation. The mean employee in Alberta efficiently had their earnings cut by almost 6% over the last years.