The Gargoyle: Staff numbers in ministerial offices ballooned under Harper

The Conservative government’s enthusiasm for cutting costs and reducing the size of the public service appears to end at the elevator to the minister’s office.

Data tabled in the House of Commons on Monday shows the number of political staffers working for cabinet ministers has ballooned under the Tories, up 21 per cent per cent from the last year of Liberal rule.

Paul Martin’s government employed 452 people as “exempt” ministerial aides, advisors and other staff in 2005. This year, that number has swollen to 549 bodies on the public payroll.

The increase in exempt staffing is even sharper in the Prime Minister’s Office.

In 2005, it took 68 exempt staff to run Martin’s PMO. This year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s command-and-control centre employs 94 people — 38 per cent more than Martin’s, according to the figures provided by Treasury Board Secretariat.

The number of PMO staff was even higher in 2010, when the office counted 109 exempt bodies.

Some of the fatter numbers could be explained by higher turnover rates in certain ministers’ offices and a higher churn rate of staff under the Harper government.

Part of the overall increase is due to the increases in staffing at the Public Safety Canada (with 13 staffers supporting minister Steven Blaney), the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (five staff) and the Office of the Co-ordinator Status of Women (three staff).

The numbers were provided in response to an order paper question from NDP MP Charlie Angus, who asked how many ministerial staff were stationed in each city.

His question appeared to be an attempt to develop a response to questions about the NDP’s contentious use of House of Commons staff in so-called satellite offices in Montreal and Quebec City.

The vast majority of ministerial staff work in the National Capital Region, but there are some exceptions for ministries with strong regional interests, such as the three Department of Fisheries and Oceans exempt staff who work from Charlottetown, P.E.I., or the two from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada working out of Regina, Sask.

Less clear, however, is why four of Canadian Heritage Minister Shelly Glover’s staff members work from Winnipeg, in her home province.

In an email, Glover’s office said only three ministerial staff are based in Winnipeg did not respond to a request to identify the staff or say why they worked there.

The response from Treasury Board also shows that, in 2007, then-Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon had a ministerial staff member working in the far-away land of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author:  GLEN MCGREGOR