Letter: Disinformation – Not a pathway to fairly negotiated settlement

By Letter to the Editor on November 20, 2025.

* Submitted before Wednesday’s strike announcement

Dear editor,

As Alberta inches closer to another union versus government negotiation, the UCP “tactical misinformation machine” is revving up and shifting to high gear.

I speak of course of the looming dispute between AUPE’s nursing care union and the Alberta government, including the erroneous statements made by Finance Minister Nate Horner. To provide context, this is a very different situation than that of the teachers; these nurses and health care aides (HCA) have not received a pay hike in several years.

Further, the union’s desire is to reach an 84 per cent LPN-to-RN pay ratio which is a normal parity comparable that every other province already pays, respecting both LPN and RN communities.

The LPN membership, (and union) are very clear, this is about money and work hours, kudos to them for not hiding behind petty quibbles and innuendo, they got straight to the point: they want a raise, and they want parity for their LPNs who currently sit at No. 8 in wages compared to other provinces yet rank No.1 in scope of practise.

This said, the finance minister publicly stated, “The union is demanding LPNs be paid almost the same as registered nurses (RNs) and is bargaining for salary increases of 40 to 55 per cent.” The minister went on to say, “While LPNs play a critical role, a key consideration that must be considered is the fact that they do not have the same education or extensive scope of practice as RNs.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

This misleading and harmful collation of misinformation from Mr. Horner needs clarification. Firstly, LPNs earn a lot less than their counterpart RNs, and there is no established LPN-to-RN salary linkage in Alberta, meaning the salary gap between the two increases in an irregular manner; the union is looking to rectify this with parity.

Further, and in response to Mr. Horner’s extensive scope of work comment, LPNs do in fact perform similar work, and have similar comparable work scopes as RNs, a fact clear and evident on the units and wards in many of our hospitals. Without LPNs taking on more and more responsibility the ward system would regress; the facts speak for themselves, the work they do is in absolute terms “comparable.”

Now, to be fair to the RN community, LPNs should not be paid the same as their counterparts simply because of the differences in qualification, however AHS has demanded LPNs assume more and more of the RN-level roles and responsibilities, and the LPN community has accepted those demands.

These unfairly exploited LPNs must now be compensated for accepting these “over and above responsibilities” in their new contract.

It is also time for Minister Horner to act in good faith and not deliberately mislead and misinform the public or to mischaracterize a serious and legitimate bargaining process.

Perhaps a visit to an acute care unit will enlighten Mr. Horner and his colleagues regarding who does what, and when.

Ken Pirie

Medicine Hat

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