Alberta has raised the annual pay of Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) board chair Duncan Au by $24,360, setting it at $198,360. An order in council issued Thursday afternoon increased his pay from $174,000, which had been set by a separate order in council 22 months earlier. The latest raise is 14 per cent and brings the chair’s pay to more than twice its level six years ago.

Au became chair of the AER’s seven-member board in September 2024. He has three decades of experience in corporate finance and energy services and is president and CEO of private equity firm Jafetica Capital. His biography on the Alberta government’s website says he was recruited to the board for his “leadership, governance, regulatory, energy sector knowledge, and/or strategic planning” skills.

AER annual reports show the chair was paid $78,000 in 2020-21 and $138,000 in 2021-22. The amount later rose to $145,000, then to Au’s $174,000 in fall 2024, before Thursday’s increase. Across six years, the changes represent a rise of $120,360, or more than two and a half times the 2020-21 pay.

The AER said it would not comment on Au’s increase and referred questions to the provincial Ministry of Energy and Minerals, which it said reviews and determines board salaries. Energy Minister Brian Jean’s office said the regulator receives its funding from administrative levies and fees collected from the industry it regulates.

“The salary for the chairman of the board of the AER is set at a level to attract and retain capable talent for this important position,” Jean’s office said in a statement. “This is a key role in responsibly and competitively developing the province’s resources on behalf of people living in Alberta.”

The AER says on its website that “the board is not involved in (its) day-to-day operations and decisions, but instead sets the general direction of (its) work.” It also says directors approve regulatory changes and set performance expectations for the regulator and its CEO, Rob Morgan.

On Friday, Official Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi accused the AER of being a captured regulator and called on the government to improve transparency and accountability. “It’s become a political organization, and Albertans have lost their faith in it, and it needs to be fixed,” he said. He also urged the government to “Make it clear what the relationship is between an arm’s-length independent regulator and government, and let the regulator do its job free of political interference.”

The pay changes follow a dispute over AER board increases in 2024, when Opposition New Democrats questioned why the government was giving board members a “Christmas bonus.” Premier Danielle Smith said then that the regulator was independent of government and defended the raises as necessary to attract “the very best people” to the agency.

Critics have described the AER as toothless, citing problems with multiple spill cleanups and continuing issues involving orphaned oil and gas wells. The agency is funded through administrative levies and fees collected directly from the industry it is tasked with regulating.

Based on reporting by Edmonton Journal.