The Friday release of 48 political government employee contracts sparked a flurry of finger pointing among politicos over who spent more on what.

The Friday release of 48 political government employee contracts sparked a flurry of finger-pointing among politicos over who spent more on what.

The top political earners in Jason Kenney’s United Conservative government are his chief of staff, Jamie Huckabay, and Howard Anglin, principal secretary, who both earn a base salary of about $224,138 a year.

Distroscale

The contracts list biweekly pay, and all amounts have been multiplied by 26 to calculate annual salaries. The numbers do not include any monetary or non-monetary benefits, expenses or other perks.

The premier’s office was ready with comparisons once the figures became public. Executive director of issues management Matt Wolf wrote on Twitter the UCP government has 135 staff, including administrative positions, compared to the NDP’s 177 in 2018.

Wolf said the current government is spending 21 per cent less on staff for the premier and ministerial employees than the NDP did last year — numbers the premier’s press secretary, Christine Myatt, confirmed.

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Wolf, who is known for his enthusiastic promotion and defence of the premier on social media, is one of the top-six paid political staffers, taking home $194,253 a year.

Wolf has also been tied to the so-called kamikaze campaign of UCP leadership hopeful Jeff Callaway, in which Callaway’s campaign repeatedly attacked Kenney’s main party leadership competitor, former Wildrose leader Brian Jean.

NDP wants to see more contracts

While in government, the NDP posted the contracts of all political staff. The UCP opted to post contracts for 48 of the 90 of the non-administrative employees.

Myatt said in a Friday email government was disclosing pay according to rules set out in the Public Sector Compensation Transparency Act, which sets a 2019 threshold of $111,395 to disclose government employees’ pay.

The gender identity breakdown of the 90 political employees is 57 per cent male, 43 per cent female, she said.

“Staff compensation considers a variety of factors including past precedent, skill-set and experience, along with a regulated range that we have to work within,” Myatt said.

Her base salary is $159,387.

Photo by Shaughn Butts / Postmedia

Sarah Hoffman, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Glenora and past health minister, said the government should publish all political employee contracts, regardless of their salaries.

She also pointed to some staff who are being paid more by the UCP for similar positions under the NDP.

Anglin earns about $30,000 more than former Premier Rachel Notley’s principal secretary, James Rutkowski, earned in 2018, according to the government’s sunshine list

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Kenney’s speechwriter, Paul Bunner, also earns about $30,000 more than Notley’s speechwriter did.

However, the NDP’s infrastructure chief of staff, Heather Mack, earned about $30,000 more than David Jackson, now in the role for the UCP.

“It’s pretty rich to say you can’t afford to sit down at the table and even discuss contracts with teachers and nurses then at the same time you’re giving big pay increases to your political inner circle,” Hoffman said Friday. “I think that’s the height of hypocrisy.”

Top six UCP political earners

Howard Anglin, principal secretary, premier’s office $224,138

Jamie Huckabay, chief of staff, premier’s office $224,138

Katy Merrifield, executive director, communication and planning, premier’s office $194,253

Patrick Donnelly, executive director, premier’s southern Alberta office $194,253

Matt Wolf, executive director, issues management, premier’s office $194,253

David Knight-Legg, principal adviser, premier’s office $194,253