Led by Treasury Board President Tony Clement (chairman) and junior Finance Minister Ted Menzies (vice-chairman), the subcommittee on the strategic and operating review is the small panel heading the government's search for up to $8 billion in annual savings over the next few years.
Joining Clement and Menzies on the cost-cutting committee are a crew of MPs from a wide variety of portfolios and backgrounds and one senator: government Senate leader Marjory LeBreton; Defence Minister Peter MacKay; Human Resources Minister Diane Finley; Industry Minister Christian Paradis; Labour Minister Lisa Raitt; Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver; and Edmonton Tory MP Laurie Hawn.
For several months, the group of nine has gathered two or three nights a week - four to five hours at a time - for meetings through the dead of Ottawa winter to debate where to cut billions of dollars in spending and thousands of public-sector jobs.
Announced about a year ago, the committee and spending review were launched to help eliminate a $31-billion deficit, pay down federal debt and to "focus on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations and programs to ensure value for taxpayer money," according to the 2011 budget.
After months of anticipation and hundreds of hours of meetings, the broad results of the spending review are to be released in the March 29 budget, although details on specific cuts are likely to be rolled out by individual departments in the weeks that follow.
Committee members have been hesitant to discuss much about their work or even how often they meet, leaving Clement to do the talking.
"This kind of review is not just about finding savings per se - although that is important - it is also a tool by which we can help to modernize government," Clement said about the review, in a speech last weekend to Conservatives at the Manning Centre conference in Ottawa.
"We have to ingrain this idea of efficient and constrained use of tax dollars on a day-to-day basis at every level - from the politician all the way down to the proverbial mail clerk, to every level of bureaucracy," Clement added.
The panel was initially tasked with finding $1 billion in cuts for the new fiscal year beginning in April, $2 billion for 2013-14 and $4 billion in annual savings for 2014-15 and beyond.
Nearly 70 government departments and agencies were asked to submit scenarios for a five per cent and 10 per cent cut to their budgets as part of an examination of about $80 billion in direct program spending.
The $4-billion savings figure was based on a five per cent cut to department budgets.
However, the Conservative government has indicated it will cut deeper and faster than originally promised, including possible cuts of 10 per cent or more from some departments and agencies to find $8 billion in annual savings.
Departments were asked to submit the different scenarios so the subcommittee could have several options.
All of the submissions were sent to the Treasury Board committee in October for review.
The panel then met two or three nights a week from late October to Christmas in a cabinet committee room inside Centre Block on Parliament Hill. Several meetings have also been held in 2012.
During the late fall and early winter, the committee held evening meetings with ministers for each department, who presented their submissions to the group of nine and fielded questions from panel members. Once the presenting ministers left the meeting, the committee would then discuss what options it liked and the ones it didn't.
Hawn, the lone non-cabinet minister on the committee, has acted as a caucus liaison, providing Tory backbenchers with general updates on the panel's activities and work.
The Conservative government is also paying Deloitte Consulting nearly $20 million - almost $90,000 a day - to advise the committee, cabinet and senior officials until the spring on how to find savings to balance the books in the coming years.
Moreover, 40 per cent of "at risk" bonus pay for senior government managers is based on how much they cut and contribute to helping the government find billions of dollars in annual savings.
A number of major federal departments are believed to be facing accelerated cuts, including National Defence, Public Works and Foreign Affairs.
Public-sector unions estimate that cutting up to $8 billion could eliminate tens of thousands of jobs in both the government and private sector, although the government has called some of those estimates "outrageous."
Gary Corbett, CEO of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said the government's cost-cutting committee is forging ahead with plans to slash billions in spending and thousands of jobs without discussing them with public-sector unions or Canadians.
"The government is just hellbent on cutting the public service without consulting anybody," said Corbett, whose group represents approximately 58,000 scientists and other professionals employed mostly at the federal level.
Clement, meanwhile, stressed the government's hunt for ongoing savings can't simply be a once-a-year "episodic thing" done through the budget, although he wouldn't say whether the committee he's leading on the spending review will continue after the budget.
"That's a very important question and I'm sure there will be an answer to it," Clement told reporters, with a grin.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Jason Fekete
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