The review will examine policies, practices and laws governing the management of the public service, including pensioner benefits and the way it negotiates with the 18 unions representing Canada’s bureaucrats. The budget provided no details on the review other than to signal that everything is on the table for discussion with unions and employees.
Ian Lee, professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, said the government seems to be signalling the biggest review in decades, one that could “benchmark and harmonize” public service pay and benefits with the private sector.
“It will save some money but outside of Ottawa this is very popular and I think could replace their law-and-order agenda for the 2015 election,” said Lee. “They will position this as a fairness issue between public and private sector ... I think it will be a barn-burner and vote-getter.”
Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said the details are few and almost underplayed, “but it could be big.”
“The devil will be in the details,” he said.
“It’s nuanced and coded language but what it tells me is that everything is up for grabs,” said Ron Cochrane, a co-chair of the joint union-management National Joint Council.
“If the government wants to look at pensioner benefits or public service pensions we would welcome a discussion ... assuming it’s willing to include the MPs’ pension plan as part of that discussion including the MPs’ severance benefits and sick days.”
Robyn Benson, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, expects the spending reductions will bring more cuts to jobs and services.
The government announced no further cuts than the 19,200 jobs it promised to eliminate in last year’s budget. So far the government has wiped 16,220 jobs off the payroll and the remainder will be cut over the next two years.
“We don’t know the impact of last year’s budget and what was in it and the omnibus bill and now we have to drill down on this one,” Benson said. “What we need to worry about when all is said and done about last year’s, this year’s, and next year’s budget is Canadians will find services they truly need are gone.”
The budget also calls for changes that would have public servants travel less, print fewer documents, meet by video-conference or “telepresence,” and buy less software, printers and other IT devices.
There will also be fewer departments. The government plans to merge the Canadian International Development Agency with Foreign Affairs and International Trade in a new department to be called the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.
The budget also indicated more departments could disappear and some operations could be provided outside of government. It said the government will continue to streamline operations by getting out of services and programs that could be delivered by “those best positioned to do so.” The government will introduce legislation as needed to “consolidate operations and eliminate redundant organizations.”
The government has been under intense pressure to rein in its compensation costs by groups such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the C.D. Howe Institute, which argue that pay and benefits are unaffordable and out of whack with the private sector. It began cutting the wage bill by capping salaries several years ago, followed by the elimination of severance pay and a major revamp of public servants’ and MPs’ pension plans.
Personnel costs are the government’s single biggest operating cost, and many argue they are also poorly managed and little scrutinized. The $43.8 billion spent in total represents 18 per cent of all program expenses and 38 per cent of direct program spending.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page recently estimated the average public servant costs $114,100 with pensions and benefits rolled in, and the number is poised to rise. The public service now employs about 375,500 people.
The budget also announced that all Crown corporations must “align” their pension plans with the changes introduced to the public service plan in last year’s budget. That means Crown employees now will have to pay for half of the yearly contributions to their pension plans and new hires will have to work longer to collect full pensions.
The announced review of “overall compensation” and human resource management in government was among the money-saving initiatives identified by the priorities and planning subcommittee on government administration created by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Treasury Board President Tony Clement heads the committee.
Sick leave and disability is one of the employee benefits up for an overhaul. Public servants get 15 days of sick leave a year. They can accumulate them, but can’t cash them out when they retire or leave.
It’s expected the government will pursue the work of the disability management initiative, which has proposed various controversial options to replace sick leave with a short-term disability plan and overhaul its archaic long-term disability insurance plan.
The aim is to get sick and injured workers back to work faster and to tackle a more than $5-billion liability in banked sick days.
The government plans to overhaul its Internet presence, including reducing the number of websites from 1,500 to no more than six. The websites, which are typically organized by department, will be organized by services to better help Canadians navigate websites for programs and services.
Clement’s subcommittee, which is looking for ways to improve services and operations, also introduced a slew of other “common sense” and “whole-of-government” changes that will “transform the public service into the public service of tomorrow.”
Departments must reduce their travel cost by another five per cent to save $43 million a year by 2013-14. Travel has been frozen at 2008-09 levels and has dropped from $1.6 billion a year to about $240 million.
It’s up to departments to find the savings but they are expected to conduct more meetings remotely, using video-conferencing or “telepresence,” which provides “life-size, full-motion video.” Shared Services Canada will be diverting $20 million to improve these services and their use.
The committee reviewed the internal operations of the Canada Revenue Agency and Department of Fisheries and Oceans and identified savings of $60 million and $33 million respectively, by streamlining operations mostly at headquarters.
The government is also ordering departments to shift to electronic and online publishing so printed documents become an exception.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: kathryn may
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