Last week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their first new applications report of April 2026. In it was an application for union certification.
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees filed the application on 9 April 2026 on behalf of workers employed by Arch Services Ltd.
Arch Services provides staffing services for Christenson Communities, a division of Christenson Group of Companies, which operates the division as an “asset management company” that oversees over 1,500 homes in 10 luxury retirement communities in cities and towns near Edmonton and Red Deer.
The 85 or so workers are employed at Timberstone Mews, a continuing care facility located in east Red Deer.
The application was for “all employees” at the facility, which could include health care workers, such as health care aides and licensed practical nurses.
ALRB has scheduled hearings regarding this applications for later today, during which time, representatives from the employer can present arguments, if any, as to why these workers should be unable to unionize with AUPE.
Listed in the application as employer representatives are TJ Paigude, community manager at the Timberstone Mews facility, and Karlee Oltmann, a human resources business partner with Christenson.
In Alberta, workers must demonstrate support from 40% amongst themselves to unionize before they can file a certification application. In this case, it would be 35 workers
Should the ALRB approve this application, they would hold a certification vote, and all 86 workers from this facility would have a chance to democratically choose to unionize with AUPE.
Assuming the 35 workers (at least) who showed initial support all follow through and vote in favour, they would need to convince 9 more of their fellow workers to vote with them to win.
If a majority of the workers vote in favour of unionizing and they end up unionized, one of their first steps will be to form a bargaining committee to begin negotiating their first collective agreement.
This is the fourth application that AUPE had filed for workers employed by Arch Services since last November.
AUPE filed a similar application back in December for workers employed at Devonshire Village, another retirement facility owned by Christenson and staffed by Arch Services.
Last month, workers at the company’s Village at Westmount and Glastonbury Village facilities also filed to unionize.
Workers at the Devonshire facility received their union certification last month, but workers at the other two facilities are still waiting.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of last week’s report below for your convenience.
