Calgary Council: Salary Disclosure Sparks Intense Debate

CALGARY — Councillor Landon Johnston wants to blow up Calgary's salary secrecy. His pitch? A "Sunshine List" that names names and posts exact paycheques for every city worker pulling in $140,000 or more. No more vague ranges. No more hiding behind "privacy concerns." Just raw numbers next to real people.

Johnston's Notice of Motion lands like a grenade in an already tense City Hall. The Ward 14 councillor—elected in October 2025 on a campaign built around fiscal restraint and budget transparency—has form. He organized the "Recall Gondek" petition in 2024 and tried pushing procedural changes last November. Both efforts failed. This one might too, but it's got teeth.

The Current System: Foggy by Design

Right now, Calgary's compensation policy gives you titles and salary ranges. That's it. Updated as recently as April 30, 2025, the city explicitly refuses to release employee names or exact salaries, wrapping itself in "privacy and security" language. Managers earn somewhere between $120,751 and $189,834. Directors? Try $161,001 to $259,191. City Administrative Officer David Duckworth sits at the top with a listed salary of $410,000. But who else is in that club? The city won't say.

Alberta's Public Sector Compensation Transparency Act forces provincial agencies and boards to disclose names and salaries above $159,676 in 2025. Municipalities got a pass. Johnston's motion would drag Calgary into that spotlight, voluntarily, with an even lower threshold.

Budget Wars Set the Stage

This isn't coming out of nowhere. Johnston's motion follows brutal November-December 2025 budget fights where Council slashed a forecasted 5.8% property tax increase down to 1.6% by raiding $50 million from reserves. Taxpayers got temporary relief. City departments got squeezed. Now Johnston's swinging back around to the question: Who's making what while residents tighten belts?

The sunshine list idea has history in Calgary. Councillors Sean Chu and Jeff Davison pushed similar proposals back in 2019. They went nowhere. Johnston's betting the political winds have shifted.

The Legal Wall

Here's where it gets messy. Alberta's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) says disclosing a salary range is fine. Releasing an exact salary? That's typically an unreasonable invasion of privacy without employee consent. Section 17(2)(e) is clear on this. City Administration and the City Solicitor's office are expected to wave that statute like a stop sign when this motion hits the floor.

And they won't be alone. City employee unions—CUPE Local 37 (Inside Workers), CUPE Local 38 (Outside Workers), and the Calgary Firefighters Association (IAFF Local 255)—are gearing up to fight this hard. They'll frame it as a privacy violation and a security risk. Union leadership sees this as a direct shot at their members.

What Happens Next

The motion goes to Calgary City Council for debate. Mayor Jeromy Farkas and the 14 councillors will hash it out in chambers. If it somehow passes—and that's a big if—City Manager David Duckworth would be on the hook to make it work. Legal challenges would likely follow immediately. Johnston's gambling that public appetite for transparency outweighs the legal and political blowback. Council will decide if he's right.