In the mid-1990s, under Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien, there was the equivalent of 662 people employed on a full-time basis in the Privy Council Office, the bureaucracy that supports and advises the prime minister and his cabinet.
By 2010-11, that number swelled to 1,066, according to the office's annual performance reports.
During the same time, costs of running the office increased to $160 million from $79.7 million.
The only years when the office came close to its current size were 2004-05, when Paul Martin had 1,026 employees during his first full year as prime minister, and in 2005-06, when Martin handed the keys of 24 Sussex to Harper. In that year, there were 1,032 employees in the Privy Council Office.
The increasing costs and manpower at PCO are a result of “time-limited initiatives in support of key government priorities,” said Raymond Rivet, a spokesman for the office. “The Afghanistan Task Force, G8, G20 and the Olympics, the Economic Action Plan and Commissions of Inquiry are good examples of this.”
The growth in this one federal office, however, mirrors the overall trend in Harper’s Ottawa, where the federal public service swelled by more than 33,020 people, or 13 per cent, in his first five years at the helm.
The trend hasn’t been lost on the Opposition. Still, the NDP has a difficult time explaining the growth in bodies and budgets in the privy council office.
“There is no justification for this... It’s just hypocritical,” said NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus. “This government’s telling everybody it’s going to establish a new way of doing business and everyone’s going to tighten their belts.”
In 2006-07, during his first full year as prime minister, Harper showed signs of veering toward a smaller government when he cut the manpower at PCO by nearly 130 bodies to 904, and spent $26.8 million less than the previous year.
But the numbers crept up every year since. The number of bodies surpassed Martin’s highs, reaching unprecedented levels in 2009-10, and then grew by another 15 bodies the following year.
The growth might soon stop, however.
The Privy Council Office, along with every other federal department and agency, is undergoing a review to help the government find $4 billion in annual savings in an attempt to balance the budget by 2015-16.
The discussions in the Conservative cabinet about where job and budget cuts will come are still behind closed doors.
“Budgets and jobs for everything else from health care to the environment are on the table,” said NDP MP Angus. “If we’re looking for efficiencies, I suggest the first thing we do is take away the credit card from the prime minister.”
By the numbers -- full-time equivalents in the Privy Council Office:
2010-11: 1,066
2009-10: 1,051
2008-09: 981
2007-08: 912
2006-07: 904
2005-06: 1,032
2004-05: 1,026
2003-04: 938
2002-03: 938
2001-02: 818
2000-01: 777
1999-00: 744
1998-99: 710
1997-98: 682
1996-97: 662
Original Article
Source: Global National
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