Last week, Matt Jones, Alberta’s minister of jobs, economy, and trade, recommended to the Lieutenant Governor in Council to reappoint a Calgary-based lawyer as vice-chair for the Alberta Labour Relations Board.
Bill Johnson has practised law in Alberta for over 30 years, most recently as a partner at the law firm McGown Johnson (now McGown Cook), where he represented unions and workers before arbitration boards, labour relations board, and human rights commissions.
Johnson first joined the Alberta Labour Relations Board in January 2016 for a 1-year term. He was concurrently designated vice-chair of the board.
However, before his term expired, he was designated as chair for 2.5 years, effective November 2016.
Just two months later, in January 2017, his term as both board member and chair was extended from May 2019 to January 2022, nearly 3 more years.
The following month, Johnson’s term was scaled back to October 2021. Except before he could complete the term, the government rescinded his chair position, effective January 2021, 10 months early. They reappointed him as a board member but made him vice-chair instead, a position he was supposed to hold until December 2023.
Which brings us to the new recommendation from Jones, who has reappointed Johnson as both a member of the ALRB and its vice chair, with a term set to expire in April 2026. I guess we’ll see though.
Interestingly, Jones’s recommendation also “prescribes the remuneration payable” to Johnson as $300 per hour for the work he performs for the board. He’ll also qualify for travel, meal, and hospitality expense reimbursements.
I say it’s interesting because of all the other orders in council issued regarding Johnson’s appointments to the ALRB, none of them listed an hourly wage.
For example, according to his first contract (signed in March 2017), he was to be paid $8,336.74 biweekly as chair of the ALRB, and in his most recent contract for the 50% part-time vice-chair position, he was supposed to receive an annual salary of $88,032.50 (or $3,372.89 biweekly) in the first year of the contract, which would increase to $90,469.90 (or $3,466.28 biweekly) as of this past September.
His contracts all seem to show an annual wage paid out biweekly. So it’s curious that it’s switched to an hourly rate.
As I indicated, his most recent contract was for “a 50% part-time basis”. I have no idea how many hours Johnson worked during the this most recent 3-year contract, but if we assume 20 hours per week, then he was his most recent salary of $90,469.90 a year worked out to about $87 an hour.
So, an hourly wage of $300 an hour is quite the jump.
The Order in Council issued by the provincial government doesn’t indicate whether this will be a part-time or full-time appointment, and his new contract isn’t yet available.
A job posting issued by the Alberta government this past October indicated that they were hiring 1 full-time and up to 4 part-time vice-chair positions.
6 replies on “UCP govt to pay ALRB vice-chair $300/hr”
Did this Bill Johnson do work for Mount Royal College, way back when – early 90’s? I had some dealings with their lawyer, just not sure of the name.
It’s possible. He was working as a lawyer, taking on all sorts of clients.
Glad I didn’t say more because it just occurred to me that I was thinking of Bill Armstrong.
Also an OIC that indicates Vice Chair Armstrong paid at $300 an hour. In each case, that is roughly half of what they could bill in the private sector.
This is just unbelievably distgusting
I’ve been working in Labour Relations for more than 40 years, and have had the pleasure of working with Mr. Johnson on numerous occasions. He is worth every penny of $300/hr.