President’s Message
Welcome to the Alberta Crown Attorneys’ Association
Dear Colleagues:
In 2007 a salary grid was created that made salaries easy to understand and promotion predictable. Re-classification procedures were introduced and we were told this was the way of the future. We were told that our remuneration would be predictable, reliable and fair. Re-classification was available to those who strove to do higher-level work than their Assessed Legal Experience might dictate. We maintained a bonus program, enjoyed healthy education budgets that allowed travel to conferences and even had the benefit of a Health and Wellness account.
But as the proverb goes: “Change is the only constant.”
Not even two years later salaries were frozen and “the grid” is no longer applied. The bonus program is gone, as are the health and wellness accounts. Our educational opportunities have been significantly limited, infrastructure upgrades have been cancelled, and security of our offices has been questioned by the government’s own experts. Until recently there was a hiring freeze. We were grateful when that freeze was lifted from our division, but now we have a salary grid for incumbent prosecutors and a new grid for our recently hired colleagues with significant differences in salaries. All of this happened without anyone even asking us what we thought.
The murder rate in Edmonton alone has tripled and our jobs get increasingly complicated everyday. The ACAA executive has had enough of this. We hope that Crown Prosecutors share that position. We want to change the way the government treats Crown prosecutors. We provide an essential public service that is neglected. Morale is plummeting among our ranks, and attrition will likely follow. These consequences pile on top of each other and they are not good for the pursuit of justice, for the safety of our communities or for any of us.
We have no stability. It is time to stop riding the ebbs of flows of the government’s good will and funding whims without having a strong voice to speak for ourselves.
Your executive has a plan and we want to move forward, but we need your help. We need your support. If we speak for 50% of the prosecutors, that will mean little. If we speak for 90% of the prosecutors, that will mean everything. We want to see you at ACAA Spcial Meeting at 4 pm on May 18, 2011 at the River Cree Resort and Casino. We want to hear your thoughts from the floor. We want you to vote on motions. We want you to help our committees. We want things to be better. Please join us. We need you to make this work.
If we all speak with one voice we can make change happen.
Avril Inglis