“Now that things seemed to have risen to a higher level, now people are really, really, getting demoralized. They’re feeling that this government is out to get rid of the public services at any cost. That’s worrisome, and no one is saying anything to alleviate their fears at all,” he said.
On Jan. 10, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-Oshawa, Ont.) confirmed that some departments may be instructed to cut more than the five to 10 per cent of their operating budget as originally planned in the 2011 budget under the strategic and operating review.
“This is hard work. And, of course, there can be numbers between five and 10 per cent and some departments can do more than 10 per cent,” Mr. Flaherty told reporters last week in Vancouver.
Rumours that some departments have been asked to look for up to 15 per cent cuts had already been circulating through civil servants’ circles in Ottawa.
Mr. Gordon said that since unions representing public servants have been shut out of the decision-making process, workers have been left to speculate about their department’s and their own job’s fate.
“We’re beginning to get some trickles of people saying what they’re hearing,” he told The Hill Times.
“Obviously there’s a lot of talk going on in the various departments. Whether it’s feeding into rumours or whether they’re real, people don’t know,” Mr. Gordon added.
Mr. Flaherty said last week that though no decisions on what will be cut, or how much, have been made yet, the degree of the cuts would vary across departments.
“It won’t be a broad brush across government of everybody gets a five per cent reduction or everybody gets a 10 per cent reduction. The reason we don’t use a broad brush is it results in quite serious inequities, because some departments, for example, HRSDC, Human Resources, deliver a lot of services to individuals,” said Mr. Flaherty.
Decisions are being made by the Cabinet Treasury Board Subcommittee on the Strategic and Operating Review. Since October 2011 the sub-committee, which is chaired by Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) and includes nine ministers, has been reviewing department’s proposals for cuts.
The federal government’s budget deficit is $31-billion, according to the department of Finance’s fall economic update, released Nov. 8. The government plans to return to a balanced budget in 2015-2016, with a surplus of $600-million.
Through the strategic and operating review the government is aiming for at least $4-billion in annual savings by 2014-2015, from 67 government departments’ total annual $80-billion operating budgets.
Reports have raised the possibility that cuts could be accelerated in some departments to take place over just two years. Last week, Mr. Flaherty did not rule the possibility out.
“We’ve been looking at what period of time would be appropriate depending on the nature of the program. We’ll see,” he said.
Mr. Gordon said that the uncertainty is hurting the atmosphere and the work getting done in the public service.
“It seems to be creating intense discomfort in the workplace,” he said.
“If the morale goes down, the productivity goes down with it, for sure. People can’t focus on the work that they have to do,” he explained.
Even as the public service awaits the results of the strategic and operating review, due out in the next budget, it must also contend with the aftermath of prior savings initiatives.
On Jan. 11, 60 employees from Environment Canada were told their jobs were being cut. The workers were part of the group of more than 700 public servants at Environment Canada who were notified last summer that their jobs could be affected by the department’s strategic review.
That review, which the department underwent in 2010, looked at all of Environment Canada’s programs. The department was required to identify its lowest-priority or worst-performing programs, for a total of at least five per cent of program spending. The money was then moved from those programs to more high-priority ones.
Between 2007 and 2010 every government organization was asked to go through the strategic review. The 2010 round of reviews alone brought more than 2,000 job cuts in 12 departments and agencies.
The public service has also been operating under an operating budget freeze since 2010.
The same day as the Environment Canada cuts, the Parliamentary Budget Officer released its expenditure monitor for the first half of fiscal year 2011-2012. The PBO found that government spending had already decreased by three per cent between April to September 2011, compared to the same period a year before. The government had earlier planned for public service expenditures to increase by 1.5 per cent in that time.
In its report, the PBO said that the decrease was likely due to the effects of the strategic review and the operating budget freeze.
As Cabinet ministers are turning to their departments for cuts, both houses of Parliament are turning to their administrations for savings too. Parliament is separate from the public service, and therefore the strategic and operating review, but the House, the Senate, and the Library of Parliament are conducting a similar search for five to 10 per cent in budget savings.
Last year, the House, Senate and Library spent $561-million, according to the 2011 public accounts. Of that, $424.4-million went to the House of Commons.
The Commons review hasn’t made much progress since it began last fall, said the Board of Internal Economy’s opposition spokesperson, New Democrat Joe Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh, Ont.).
“We’re going through the review, but quite frankly… we just haven’t got enough information in terms of specific data and details to be able to see if there are any places where we can make specific recommendations,” he said.
He said the review, which is going on in camera at the Board’s meetings, will be picked up again when the House returns Jan. 30. Mr. Comartin added that it’s unlikely that the results will be ready in time for the 2012 budget.
“It’s a big budget, it will take us some time, but I can’t even estimate when we’ll finish it, but it is ongoing,” he said.
Mr. Gordon says that the strategic and operating review is different from the program review of the 1990s, which made cuts to the civil service that were felt for years afterwards in order to manage Canada’s growing debt crisis. The federal Liberal government back in 1995 cut 45,000 jobs to balance the books. There is some speculation that this government could cut 30,000 jobs.
Mr. Gordon said that with program review, there was more consultation about how to proceed.
“There was a dialogue between the departments, between the employees, between their unions, about how they’re going to do it. They made their decisions alright, but it wasn’t all behind closed doors, we were able to have some input,” he said.
Mr. Gordon said that he and his union have not recently met with Mr. Clement, and the senior officials that he has spoken with either don’t know what’s going on, or aren’t in a position to say.
“The one thing about a public debate, is everything is openly on the table, and if it’s there on the table [workers] at least know what they’re looking at,” he said.
Instead, he and his membership are in the dark.
“People are saying, ‘Where does it all end? When do we know what really is going on?’” he said.
Original Article
Source: Hill Times
No comments:
Post a Comment