Is the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) planning on using your tax dollars to host another $912 Staff Easter egg hunt?

Who knows? The organization doesn’t seem interested in publishing its draft $5 million budget online. That needs to change; the ASBA needs to be much more transparent and accountable with the public.

If you aren’t familiar with the ASBA, it’s an umbrella group for school boards across the province and it is funded with millions of tax dollars each year. Well, technically the entity is funded by large membership fees and revenues that come from local school boards across Alberta, but we know where school boards get their funding – Alberta taxpayers.

While the ASBA falls under the Alberta School Boards Association Act, it isn’t covered by the provincial government’s freedom of information laws. That means taxpayer watchdog groups like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the media, the public and even its own members face limitations when investigating the ASBA’s activities.  

The fact that the ASBA won’t publish its budget online is odd. School boards, local municipalities, and the provincial and the federal governments, all table their budgets publicly before they’re approved. By publishing their budget publicly, it allows taxpayers to view the documents and provide feedback to their elected officials before they vote on each budget.

The ASBA hasn’t posted its budget online, but it did post a video about its budget and a “frequently asked questions” document. Both documents are password protected, but the Canadian Taxpayers Federation obtained a copy of the ASBA’s frequently asked questions file.

The document notes that the ASBA wants to raise the fees school boards pay each year by 7 per cent. That means that if school boards across the province approve such an increase at their upcoming meeting in early June, $205,341 will be drained from classrooms and instead funnelled towards the ASBA bureaucracy.

The ASBA claims its funding hasn’t kept up with inflation and notes, “We have approved deficit budgets every year except one since 2009-10.”


However, the frequently asked questions document notes that a trustee asked why salaries are expected to rise at the ASBA while school boards are freezing pay levels for many of their employees. Another trustee pointed out the large administrative component at the ASBA, asking – “why do you have so many administrative assistants?”

Indeed, considering the ASBA’s 19-person staff complement includes seven assistants, it’s a valid question.

Make no mistake, the ASBA could very well be providing some worthwhile services to school boards in Alberta. However, accountability could be improved if Premier Notley proceeded with three measures:

First, she should give school boards the true power to opt out of the ASBA. Right now, they’re essentially required to be members due to benefits clauses in their labour agreements. If the ASBA had to earn each school board’s voluntary support, it would likely be more responsive to each board’s concerns.

Second, the ASBA should be brought under provincial freedom of information laws. Again, this would allow taxpayer watchdog groups, the media and the general public to obtain ASBA documents and hold it accountable.

Third, the ASBA should have to disclose its salary and benefit costs to the public – just like many other government bodies in Alberta. As long as taxpayers are footing the bill for the ASBA, taxpayers deserve to know what it’s doing with public funds.

It’s unfortunate that the ASBA hasn’t taken a more proactive approach to being transparent with taxpayers. Until it does, stories like this will continue and pressure will mount for the provincial government to take action.    

Colin Craig is the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
This column was published in the May 26, 2018 edition of the Edmonton Journal