CALGARY, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) came out in full support of the Alberta government’s new employee ‘sunshine list’ today. The CTF has campaigned actively for such a law over the past year and provided recommendations to Associate Minister Don Scott as he crafted the sunshine list guidelines. 

“This has been a priority policy and accountability issue for the CTF. The guidelines presented today are a big win for taxpayers and the Alberta supporters of the CTF. This just what the CTF was hoping for,” said CTF Alberta Director Derek Fildebrandt.

“Alberta’s new sunshine list sets the gold-standard in Canada for transparency in government employee compensation and is an example for other jurisdictions to follow,” continued Fildebrandt.

Alberta’s sunshine law, unlike some other provinces’, will require disclosure of all salaries, benefits, bonuses, pension payments and severance amounts. It will also include a copy of the employee’s contract where available. 

“Today’s announcement in Alberta highlights just how disappointing the Harper government has handled this issue federally,” said CTF Federal Director Gregory Thomas. “The House of Commons initially passed a water-downed version of Alberta’s new rules proposed by Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber, only to have a group of federal Conservative MPs gut that bill in committee.”

“Hopefully there’s a few Conservative MPs trying to figure out how to right their past wrongs and follow Alberta’s leadership on this issue,” concluded Thomas.

For more information, contact: 

CTF Alberta Director, Derek Fildebrandt
1-800-661-0187 (office) or 403-690-4910 (mobile)

or

CTF Federal Director, Gregory Thomas
1-800-265-0441 (office) or 613-295-8409 (mobile)