EDMONTON, AB: New information from the sunshine list shows the Premier has hired 20 per cent more six-figure staffers to her office while overseeing the largest deficit in provincial history, the Wildrose Official Opposition said.
While the Premier was stacking her office with more high-paid officials, in 2016 Calgary had the highest unemployment rate in the country, with the number of Albertans on employment insurance near record levels.
“During a 2 year salary freeze the Premier’s Office has seen fit to expand Executive Council,” Wildrose Shadow Democracy & Accountability Minister Nathan Cooper said. “Not only that, the Premier’s Office is adding insult to injury by expanding the number of six-figure staffers during an economic downturn.”
In 2015 Executive Council had 53 staff members on the sunshine list with 64 staff members on the sunshine list the following year. Essentially all new hires made at the Premier’s Office were at sunshine list level salaries.
“The NDP government needs to take a hard look at its hiring practices” Cooper said. “Hiring six-figure staffers in the midst of an economic downturn sends to the wrong signal to the tens of thousands of currently unemployed Albertans.”