New wave of job cuts in public service announced

The extent of public service cuts is gradually becoming known as employees receive notice that their jobs will be impacted by the government's spending cuts. This is the third wave of letters and involves six federal departments.

Even diplomats and embassy staff will be facing cuts. Four Canadian trade consulates in the U.S. and seven of 18 international trade offices in Canadian cities will shut their door as of next week.

Unions representing five other departments received notice of coming job cuts on Friday. The departments are: Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, Human Resources and Skills Development, Library and Archives Canada, Statistics Canada and Transport Canada.

The head of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees said:"These cuts are not necessary, but for ideological reasons only," The CAPE group represents 14,000 employees including economists,, statisticians, translators, and others.

These notices come just as the PSAC (Public Service Alliance of Canada) begins a week long convention in the capital Ottawa. The 500 plus delegates will be discussing the impact of the government cuts on their 172,000 members as well as electing new officers.

It is estimated that balancing the books by 2015-2016 as planned by the government will result in slow growth and the loss of 108,000 jobs. In the recent budget the government announced that it will cut 19,200 public service jobs over the next three years saving 5.2 billion dollars. Of course the costs that government might face through disasters caused by cutting in areas such as food inspection are not factored in! For more see this article.

Budget to cut public service jobs

In keeping with the ideology of the Conservative government the Treasury Board president Tony Clement said that the coming budget will represent a culture shift from "spending enablers" to "cost containers," .

Clement has the task of cutting from 4 to 8 billion from the budget. This is all part of the plan to reduce the deficit and balance the budget. Clement was speaking a Conservative gathering in Ottawa.

Clement said that the government plans will face opposition from public sector union bosses along with the New Democratic Party opposition. Of the NDP he said their only solution is to hire more, tax more, and spend more.

The NDP responded that the Conservatives were out to cut services and reduce the capacity of government to help people. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty maintained that the budget would not contain any draconian measures. This is probably true in that the Conservatives do not want create too much of a voter backlash through their cuts.

In fact some critics complain that the Conservatives are actually buying off the civil servants whose jobs are being cut by providing generous severance provisions. The Canadian Tax Federation a right wing group that used to be headed by the prime minister complains that the severance provisions are far too costly and generous and may almost balance out the savings. See this article.

A report to the government reads:"We are conscious that the Public Service is on the verge of significant changes, driven in part by the immediate requirements of deficit reduction, but also by a more fundamental need to renew public institutions for the future," . As is happening in many countries government services are to be cut and jobs lost. The report notes specifically:"One of the major tasks that senior leaders will face is the deliberate downsizing of the Public Service," For much more see the entire CBC article..