Coaldale town council responds to AUPE’s claims regarding remuneration increases

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Sunny South News

Town of Coaldale

Last week, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) issued a press release accusing Coaldale town council of hypocrisy for “awarding themselves huge salary increases” while denying the same to its unionized staff. This accusation is not only misleading—it is absurd when those increases are discussed in real dollar amounts and then measured against the six-figure compensation packages AUPE’s own elected representatives quietly collect from union dues paid by front-line workers.

“Due to recent events, residents have shown a renewed interest in council’s remuneration,” said Town of Coaldale Mayor, Jack Van Rijn. “As a council committed to transparency, we are always prepared to direct people to information about how much we are paid, which is published each year in the Town’s financial statements. At the same time, though, we believe residents should also be made of aware of the massive compensation packages AUPE’s own elected representatives receive – just to put things in perspective.”

Council Remuneration

In July 2021, the Town of Coaldale participated in a Council remuneration study conducted by Hillcrest Financial and sponsored by the Town of  Blackfalds. As a participating municipality, Coaldale received the study’s findings at no cost. The study examined honoraria, per diems, expense policies, technology allowances, and the approaches other municipalities use to establish council compensation. 

Ten Alberta municipalities of comparable size participated in this study, and the findings were conclusive: at the time of the study, and before Council’s 2022 update to its remuneration policy (Policy C-013), Coaldale’s Mayor and Councillors were compensated below the 25th percentile of the comparator group. For example, the Mayor’s annual honorarium stood at $33,528, compared to $65,664 in Morinville, while Councillors received $20,112 annually—well below what the vast majority of their municipal peers were already receiving:

Also important to recognize, however, is that in 2019 the federal government eliminated a long-standing policy that allowed one-third of an elected official’s salary to be tax free. This change meant that municipal elected officials across Canada saw an immediate reduction in their net pay, even though their gross remuneration had not changed. 

Many municipalities, including nearby Taber, chose to increase the gross salaries of their mayors and councillors to offset this loss and preserve net income. Coaldale, however, did not make such an adjustment. As a result, while other communities corrected for the federal tax change, Coaldale town council’s compensation remained static, creating a situation where it lagged for years.

For these reasons, Council approved an updated remuneration policy in September 2022. Effective January 1, 2023, the Mayor’s annual honorarium was set at $48,276 and councillors’ at $26,760. Importantly, council established that future compensation would be set at the 65th percentile of a market survey conducted every four years, ensuring predictability, transparency, and external bench-marking. Annual adjustments were also explicitly tied to the same cost-of-living factor negotiated in the collective agreement with unionized staff.

The cost of the 2022 correction was relatively modest, requiring an estimated 0.57 per cent in additional tax revenue. And despite the 2022 correction, total compensation for Coaldale’s mayor and councillors – which includes salary plus benefits/allowances – to this day remains below average.

AUPE Executive Compensation

By contrast, AUPE executives—also elected representatives—receive staggering compensation packages. In 2024, AUPE’s President, Guy Smith’s total compensation amounted to $309,108, and comprised nearly $200,000 in base salary, plus almost $50,000 in benefits and spent tens of thousands more in vacation pay, travel, and allowances.

Meanwhile, AUPE Vice Presidents each earned $118,500 in salary, received over $40,000 in benefits, and each spent tens of thousands of dollars in subsistence and travel allowances for total compensation packages worth over $200,000. This includes AUPE’s South Vice President, Curtis Jackson, who has singled out Coaldale’s Mayor for earning $48,276 per year while he himself is on track to collect more than 4 times as much in total compensation this year alone.

Jackson, however, has yet to acknowledge this fact. Instead, he focuses exclusively on percentages when criticizing council’s salary adjustments—and for the following reason: percentages can sound dramatic while hiding how modest the actual numbers are. After all, doubling a dollar is technically a 100 per cent increase, but it still only leaves you with two dollars.

In the same way, a $6,000 adjustment to a Councillor’s $20,000 salary can be spun as a massive “30 per cent increase,” even though the pay itself still falls far short of what AUPE considers a living wage. The irony is almost too much to bear – as the table illustrates, while Jackson makes bank off the union dues of front-line workers, he condemns local elected officials – who make less than minimum wage when you consider the number of hidden hours they spend serving their communities – for earning a fraction of his own salary.

“Describing the 2022 decision as a ‘massive raise’ yet again oversimplifies and misrepresents the facts,” said Van Rijn. “Council acted on independent data, corrected a long-standing inequity, and established a transparent, policy-based framework for the future. Even after the adjustment, our honoraria remain below the average of our municipal counterparts. Nobody runs for office in Coaldale to get rich—the compensation reflects part-time service for a role that now demands far more hours than ever before. If you divided that time by the honoraria we receive, you’d realize we’re making less than minimum wage. We do this because we love our community, not for the money,” he added. 

“By contrast, AUPE executives draw six-figure salaries from union dues and avoid speaking in real numbers because if they did, it would be obvious they are attacking people who make very little for the many hidden hours of service they put in,” said Van Rijn.