Last month, Statistics Canada released their labour force survey results for December 2025. In that release was an update on their data on union status in Canada.
The data shows the percentage of unionized workers in Canada and each province for year. This update has added data for 2025, which was unavailable prior to this update.
I thought I’d look at how Alberta’s union coverage rate compares to the other provinces and the country as a whole, and how it has changed over time.
The union coverage rate measures workers who are members of a union, covered by a collective agreement, or both, as a percentage of all workers.
To start, let’s look at the 2025 union coverage rates for each province.
| QC | 39.9 |
| NL | 39.8 |
| SK | 34.2 |
| MB | 34.1 |
| PEI | 33.8 |
| NS | 30.7 |
| NB | 30.7 |
| BC | 30.5 |
| ON | 26.3 |
| AB | 23.8 |
Alberta was at the bottom of the list, with just 23.8% of all employees being unionized, represented by a collective agreement, or both. This is up—although just barely—from 23.5% in 2024.
Québec topped the list, with just under 40% union coverage. That means that 2 out of every 5 workers in that province are either unionized, covered by a collective agreement, or both.
Speaking of Alberta, we were one of only two provinces with a union coverage rate last year that was below 30%. We’re also one of only three provinces that were at or below the national rate, which was 30.6%.
Now let’s compare it to 2019, when the UCP took power.
| 2019 | 2025 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NB | 27.8 | 30.7 | 2.9 |
| PEI | 31.1 | 33.8 | 2.7 |
| SK | 31.7 | 34.2 | 2.5 |
| NL | 37.6 | 39.8 | 2.2 |
| BC | 28.4 | 30.5 | 2.1 |
| QC | 38.6 | 39.9 | 1.3 |
| NS | 30.0 | 30.7 | 0.7 |
| ON | 25.9 | 26.3 | 0.4 |
| MB | 34.6 | 34.1 | -0.5 |
| AB | 24.3 | 23.8 | -0.5 |
Once again, Alberta is at the bottom of the list. Our growth in union coverage was so bad, it went in reverse! We were one of just two provinces that saw a reduction in union coverage over this 6-year period.
This time, however, it was New Brunswick, not Québec, who topped the list, jumping up 2.9 points. The national rate increased just 0.8 points during this period, which means the majority (7) of the provinces were higher than that.
Now, let’s look at the past decade.
| NL | 37.2 | 39.8 | 2.6 |
| NB | 29.1 | 30.7 | 1.6 |
| SK | 33.0 | 34.2 | 1.2 |
| QC | 38.9 | 39.9 | 1.0 |
| NS | 29.9 | 30.7 | 0.8 |
| AB | 23.0 | 23.8 | 0.8 |
| PEI | 33.2 | 33.8 | 0.6 |
| BC | 30.2 | 30.5 | 0.3 |
| ON | 26.7 | 26.3 | -0.4 |
| MB | 35.6 | 34.1 | -1.5 |
We’re finally no longer at the bottom of the list! In fact, we’re in 6th place, with an increase of 8 tenths of a percentage point. Just Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Ontario, and Manitoba were behind us.
Two provinces—Ontario and Manitoba—were the only provinces to see their union coverage rate drop over the last 10 years.
The national rate change slightly, rising 0.2 points to 30.6%.
Here’s a look at all the provinces for each year since 2015. Alberta is the thick orange line, and Canada is the thick red line.
What we notice is that the entire time since 2015, Alberta has lagged behind all the other provinces in union coverage. We started narrowing the gap with Ontario leading up to 2020, but then we plateaued in 2021 then dropped off since.
We even narrowed the gap on the national rate during the same period.
From 2015 to 2018, Alberta’s union coverage rate dropped in comparison to the national rate, going from a difference of 7.4 points in 2015 to a difference of 5.4 points in 2018.
It pretty much stayed there in 2019 and 2020, then dropped slightly in 2021, jumping to 6.3 points in 2022, returning to 5.5 points in 2023, and finishing off the last two years even higher, at 6.8 points behind the national rate.
I wonder if the UCP’s anti-union legislation had anything to do with this.
