The Canadian Taxpayers Federation released data Friday showing a large difference between the number of sick days taken by Alberta government employees and workers in Alberta's private sector.

The CTF brought a get-well-soon package for government employees to their event on the steps of the legislature.

Alberta Director Franco Terrazzano said a CTF report shows that Alberta government employees take more sick days than people in other provincial governments.

“Alberta government employees took off on average 14.4 days in 2018 for sick days,” he said. "Alberta private sector workers, they took off on average 5.7 days in 2018.”

The Taxpayers Federation got the numbers from Statistics Canada and say the government could save hundreds of millions of dollars for taxpayers if they fell in line with the private sector for number of sick days taken per year.