The newest numbers indicate that as many as 50,000 public service jobs could be cut due to the federal government’s strategic and operating review. The estimate is the preliminary result of a study by the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, and is based on government information and Statistics Canada data, according to union president Claude Poirier. The full results are expected in the next two weeks.
It comes on the heels of a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives that indicates that job losses to the federal civil service could be at least 25,000.
“It’s obviously bordering on the draconian,” said Liberal MP Ralph Goodale (Wascana, Sask.), said of the upcoming cuts.
The Conservative government, through the strategic and operating review is looking for ways to find $4-billion in savings through cuts to 67 departments’ $80-billion operating budget.
But Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) recently said that the cuts could be up to $8-billion this year.
Departments were asked to submit proposals for five or 10 per cent cuts to their operating budgets to Cabinet for review last October.
Recently, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-Oshawa, Ont.) said that some departments may be facing more than the 10 per cent cut that was originally thought to be to the maximum.
Last week, Pierre-Alain Bujold, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board Secretariat, said that no final decisions had been made on what will be cut, or to what degree.
In a letter leaked to the media on Feb. 2, Mr. Clement said the government was entering the “final stages” of the spending review.
“There is one school of thought out there that it’s in the range of eight to 10 [per cent] and that could be even more jobs than expected,” said Gary Corbett, the president of the Professional Institute of Public Service of Canada.
Opposition Members of Parliament and the unions say that they already have their eyes on particular departments they think are especially vulnerable in the face of cuts.
“We are worried about departments that have been hit with cuts already,” said NDP Treasury Board critic Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemount-La Petite Patrie, Que.).
He singled out Environment Canada, where more than 700 civil servants were put on notice last year that their jobs may be affected by cuts, and Service Canada, which has been overwhelmed by employment insurance claims recently, after temporary workers hired to deal with the surge in claims during the recession were let go.
NDP MP Megan Leslie (Halifax, N.S.) said that Atlantic EI workers are already stretched the maximum. She and other Atlantic-area MPs sat down recently with workers for a briefing.
“They actually said the morale of the staff is incredibly low, the stress of their work environment is incredibly high, and they feel like they’re at a breaking point. This is before the cuts,” she said.
The Atlantic region was singled out by the CCPA report along with the National Capital Region as the two areas in Canada that may take the brunt of public sector job cuts.
“The impact on the Atlantic region is critical. It’s about people’s ability to feed themselves, and it’s also about the ability to save people’s lives,” said Ms. Leslie.
Mr. Goodale also noted that based on prior federal cuts, the savings will come from science-based and public safety jobs like food inspectors and the Coast Guard.
“It brings back echoes of what happened in Ontario under the Harris government,” he said, noting that Ministers Flaherty and Clement, as well as current Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird (Ottawa West-Nepean, Ont.) all have roots in that provincial government.
Jeannie Baldwin, PSAC’s Atlantic region vice-president, said that she expects that the department of Fisheries and Oceans will be cut by more than 10 per cent.
Ms. Baldwin said she is also worried about food inspectors, and the capacity of Veterans Affairs Canada’s caseworkers to carry on after cuts.
“I’ve heard from some of the workers that their caseload is anywhere from six to nine hundred,” she said of the current situation.
It also appears that some departments are looking to find their savings through personnel, said Ms. Baldwin.
“When departments put forth their five to 10 per cent that this government had asked them to do, some departments put in some of the programs and services and their deputy head sent them back and said, ‘You’ve cut no people, we want people cut. You’ve got seven days to re-submit your proposals, if not we’ll cut the people for you,’” she said.
Ms. Baldwin declined to name the department or departments involved, citing fear that staff could be punished for leaking the information.
In the 1995, under the federal Liberal government’s program review, it cut 45,000 jobs in the federal public service.
At that time, the government listed 11 of the departments that took the brunt of cuts. Some of the departments that were most affected back then are also the ones being considered vulnerable today, including Agriculture, which employs Canada’s food inspectors; HRSDC, the parent department of Service Canada; Environment Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans.
But, it’s clear that no one outside of Cabinet knows for certain where the cuts will fall, and Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa-Vanier, Ont.), whose riding is also home to many federal public servants, said that he’s picked up on an unusual reticence in public servants.
“We have a double-whammy here: they’re concerned, as they should be about their jobs, and they’re afraid of speaking out,” he said.
He said a number of public servants have spoken to him only on condition of anonymity of late.
“The government should be careful when they generate this uncertainty, because it adds anxiety where there may not need to be,” Mr. Bélanger said.
Mr. Goodale said the government has been cutting the public service since before the election through its cycle of strategic reviews. Combined with the current savings initiative, the job worries have been building for some time.
“It has become the dance of 1,000 veils, it’s creating a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety over all aspects of the government of Canada,” Mr. Goodale said.
Mr. Corbett said that one of the indicators he’s noticed of the rising stress level in the public service is a higher number of complaints and emails about workplace issues that he’s been receiving from his membership.
“Pressure makes people do strange things,” he said.
NDP MP Françoise Boivin (Gatineau, Que.), who also has a significant number of public servants living in her riding on the other side of the mighty Ottawa River, said that it could be that rumours of dire cuts to departments could be a way for the government to manage expectations.
“Sometimes governments they proceed to put out a big, big, scary balloon, everybody is trembling, and when it comes to the budget, it’s not as tragic as they heard, so people heave a big sigh of relief, but, in the meantime, it’s still going to hurt,” she said.
Ms. Boivin also said local businesses who serve public servants are worried about what the cuts will mean for them.
“The nervousness is not solely with the people who work for the government, it’s also with … any business that has any type of connection with the economy of our region,” she said.
The sentiment was echoed back across the Ottawa River by colleague Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, Ont.) who noted that he’s been hearing not just from local civil servants, but from members of the public who are worried about what the cuts will mean to them.
The federal riding of Ottawa Centre, alone, is home to 4,000 public servants who are members of PSAC. More than 60,000 public servants live in the NCR alone.
Mr. Poirier said that the consequences of taking several billions of dollars out of local economies will be felt in industries outside of government.
“There has to be consequences for the retail sales sector, there has to be consequences for people who are building houses, restaurants, taxi drivers, in Ottawa,” he said.
Liberal MP John McCallum (Markham-Unionville, Ont.) was Minister of National Revenue when the government of Paul Martin was looking for $11-billion in savings over five years through a program review.
Due to the already-shaky economy he said he doesn’t think now is the time to be cutting government spending.
He also said that to his knowledge, during the previous review did not pay any outside consultants for advice. The federal government is currently paying auditing firm Deloitte to help senior bureaucrats and ministers assess program and administration costs, at a fee of almost $20-million.
“We did it through the public service, talking to ministers and others involved, and having many meetings to try to find the best way to make up these savings,” he said.
A report by democracy research institute Samara, released last fall, shed light on the extent that opposition MPs were involved in finding savings during the program review of the mid-1990s.
“We met privately and gave them a very specific list of things that could be reduced, and ultimately they did it,” said one former Reform MP.
The climate surrounding government cuts in the mid-1990s, compared to now, is very different. Then, the opposition Reform Party was pushing the Liberals to trim government, whereas now, the other side of the House is largely against it.
On Feb.1, in a speech at the annual general meeting of PIPSC, interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel (Hull-Aylmer, Que.) a former union president and the Parliamentary representative for one of the most bureaucracy-laden ridings in the country, said that opposing the Conservative budget is “the fight of my life.”
Since shortly after the strategic and operating review was announced in the 2011 budget, the federal unions have complained that they have been kept out of the loop on the spending review. Mr. Goodale said the lack of consultation will likely make it harder for the government when it comes time to implement its reductions.
“They will be facing a hostile workforce that has been caused to be hostile by the way the government has handled the discussion,” he said.
Mr. Corbett said that his membership will be faithful to the decisions of the strategic and operating review. He added that the time has passed for consultations.
“For us to go back now and argue that they should have consulted us seems to be unproductive,” he said.
But adding to the potential for workplace tension is the government’s intension to base senior bureaucrats’ bonuses on how well they achieve cuts.
“Forty per cent of the at-risk pay budget will be earmarked to remunerate senior levels upon the departmental achievement of corporate performance commitments in support of the all-of-government spending review,” said Mr. Bujold in an email.
Mr. Boulerice criticized the practice.
“Can you imagine the work climate in the office when your boss will be paid more if you get fired?” he said.
Ms. Baldwin said she expects to start hearing more details of the cuts closer to the release of the budget, which is traditionally tabled in late February or March.
Mr. Corbett said that he hopes his union will soon learn about the decisions on cuts, so that it can start dealing with the aftermath.
He said: “We wanted them to bring us in early, so that we can do it right, but then when they do it wrong, we still need to go in to help clean up their mess.”
Federal Cuts Announced to Date:
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency: 42 positions due to the 2010 strategic review
Bank of Canada: 80 to 95 positions by April 1, 2012.
Canada School of Public Service: 190 French and English language teachers and instructors, including 66 permanent positions due to a 2006 Treasury Board decision to privatize instruction.
Canadian Food Inspection Agency: 234 positions between 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.
Environment Canada: 300 positions due to the 2010 strategic review and a further 46 scientists whose contracts were not renewed.
Fisheries and Oceans: 150 to 280 positions due to the 2010 strategic review, including biologists and other scientists, and 39 members of the Coast Guard.
Human Resources Skills Development Canada: Service Canada will cut about 600 jobs due to the 2010 strategic review with a possible 300 more.
Industry Canada: 26 positions in life sciences, manufacturing and resource-processing branches due to the 2010 strategic review.
National Gallery: five curators and two senior managers.
National Research Council: 77 positions
Natural Resources: About 100 workers in the corporate management and services sector and the public affairs and portfolio management sector, due to corporate restructuring.
Public Works: 687 jobs over three years, including auditors and translators, due to the 2010 strategic review and a further 148 to 158 contract workers doing pension processing.
Treasury Board Secretariat: 84 positions, including 19 communications and executive positions due to the 2010 strategic review.
Western Economic Development Canada Up to 11 positions over the next three years as a result of improving internal operations due to the 2010 strategic review.
—Compiled by Jessica Bruno
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Jessica Bruno
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