Pink slips for government workers?

[DoubleFang]

MARK DUNN, SENIOR NATIONAL REPORTER | QMI AGENCY

OTTAWA - Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is planning to swing a Paul Bunyan-sized axe through the public service that would leave stacks of government workers piled on the sidewalk.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - a left-leaning think tank - says in order for Flaherty to balance the books by 2014-15, federal departments would have to chop 40,000 workers from a bureaucracy that has bulged by the same number under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's watch.

Those workers would be in addition to 40,000 others who are expected to sail off into retirement in the next few years or through others forms of attrition.

The combined total would represent about one-third of public sector workers, and would severely cripple the delivery of services, says David Macdonald, a research associate with the centre.

"I'd be pretty concerned if you have a job in the public service, if you want a job in the public service," Macdonald said. "This is not a good time for you."

Monday's federal budget announced $11 billion in cuts ending in 2015-16, when the government predicts a $4.2 billion surplus.

A cabinet review led by Treasury Board President Tony Clement this fall is expected to trim the fat on $80 billion in program spending. Flaherty says some programs are destined for the wood chipper, but won't provide specifics until the 2012 budget.

He said Monday it's up to the private sector to provide jobs, not government.

Derek Fildebrandt of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation says entire departments should be bulldozed and labuor laws rewritten to disarm public sector unions from standing in the way.

"The public service should be serving the people, not their own greedy interests," he says.

Unions, meanwhile, are digging in for a fight and are warning Canadians their standard of living would be threatened if the public service is castrated.

The Canadian Association of Professional Employees suggests the government is lying when it says it can shrink the federal workforce through retirements because Treasury Board data says otherwise.

"The Harper government has been saying that attrition will allow the government to avoid sending anyone home unwillingly. But the numbers don't add up," says association president Claude Poirier.


http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/po ... 72048.html

[wthwyt]

If the services provided by Federal Government will not be cut or effected, so be it say goodbye to your Government job.
If on the other hand services are cut or effect then..... tisk tisk Stephen.

[Captain Awesome]

30% of public workers might get axed?

Prepare for fireworks.

[grammafreddy]

As long as they can figure out what's fluff and what's not and keep essentials, then I'm okay with it. I agree government's role is not to provide jobs - its job is to govern. Canada's public sector work force has grown far too large for the country's good.

[sooperphreek]

and those jobs are a reason why we have weathered the economic storm so well. those jobs create taxes and stability. its our hallmark in this country from ww2 and all the people that worked for the government and military to keep money flowing and jobs at hand. i bet the conservatives are relieved that they ended up with a non confidance vote. this announcement was probably one of the bombshells they tried to hide.

[Bagotricks]

Every government worker I know office has been "downsized" over the last few years (to make way for those tax cuts for millionaires) and one worker is doing 3 peoples job. People "slip through the cracks" and government case workers don't give a hoot because they are expected to take work home with them and finish it for free. Now we are going to cut even MORE.

Of course service is going to be effected. The experts say the the Cons are dreaming if they think that they can cut 30% of "fat" out of the system. Every government before has "cut fat" out of the system previously. Be prepared to suffer to give 7 figure salary earners a break. Its going to be more of what Steven Harper thinks what services "don't matter" to Canadians - and we will be told its "better for the economy" to farm out services to the private sector.

Ah, corporate welfare. We wont cut jobs to put food in peoples mouths but we will cut jobs to put Porches in peoples garages.

No wonder the Cons are taking away the 2 dollar per vote subsidy. All their rich friends can support the Party that gives them the best breaks, and the groups that represent the poor and underrepresented - well - they get screwed. Go Canada!

[Captain Awesome]

I read through the article again, and it comes off as a bit alarmist. Thirty percent cuts would be very severe. Granted, even 20% cuts would cause riots and general strike of some kind. Also, it will almost guarantee huge tax hikes like it did in Greece.

[MAPearce]

If they swung they axe at the top third of the civil service, I doubt any one would notice..

[Captain Awesome]

Oh, you'll notice.

[MAPearce]

Oh, you'll notice.

You mean I'll no longer have to toil with titles like assistant to the assistants deputy ministers assistant assistant secretarial assistant ????

Just like the provincial gov't, the feds have become too fat. Firing the top third of the civil service will impact only them.

But hey , they can live off of their superannuation.

[grammafreddy]

and those jobs are a reason why we have weathered the economic storm so well. those jobs create taxes and stability. its our hallmark in this country from ww2 and all the people that worked for the government and military to keep money flowing and jobs at hand.

You dream big, expensive dreams.

Those jobs are paid for by the workers who work in the private sector. Those jobs come with big benefit packages and sweeeet pensions - again paid for by the workers in the private sector. They are not new wealth-generating jobs and they don't contribute to economic stability - quite the reverse, in fact. They suck stability from a country. We have weathered the economic storm in spite of those jobs, not because of those jobs.

It is past time to trim the fat and hopefully it will be done by government recognizing just what the fat truly is, rather than protecting some empire-building bureaucrat jobs while reducing drastically the services of the front-line necessary ones.