Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, May 17, 2012

29,600 PS jobs to be cut by 2015: economist

OTTAWA — Federal departments are girded to lose more than 10,000 jobs over the next three years before they swallow the $5.2-billion spending reductions announced in the federal budget that will wipe out another 19,200 jobs in the same period.

The yearly reports on plans and priorities that departments tabled in Parliament last week show that 10,400 full-time positions will disappear over the next three years, said David Macdonald, chief economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, who tallied the numbers. That means departments are cutting 29,600 jobs between now and 2015.

Since the budget was released at the end of March, departments have handed out more than 18,000 notices to employees warning them they could lose their jobs, and that number continues to rise. The Fisheries and Oceans Department is expected to send notices this week to about 1,000 employees.

The reports, which don’t include the budget’s spending cuts, offer a picture of how many jobs departments are losing before they begin to implement the 2012 budget measures. They also confirm the overall job losses will be much higher than the 19,200 the Conservatives have said will disappear from payroll.

The 10,400 positions to be lost are from the previous rounds of spending cuts the Conservatives imposed since coming to power, including savings from strategic reviews and nearly $2 billion from a freeze on operating budgets. Those reductions are still making their way through the system as departments prepare to absorb the cuts from the March budget.

“It is disingenuous to focus on the 19,200 job losses resulting from the budget,” said Macdonald. “Those losses are just part of what is going to happen over the next three years. Several rounds of previously announced cuts will also eliminate jobs over the same period.”

But those additional 10,400 job losses are the latest piece in the puzzle over the cumulative impact of years of spending cuts. Unions have long believed the magnitude of the cuts would be much greater than the government was letting on, but the loss of 29,600 jobs isn’t enough to save the $11 billion the government wants to over the next three years.

That leaves the big question of where the rest of the savings are coming from. (The average public servant costs about $100,000 annually, including salary, benefits, pension and overhead.)

For the first time, the Finance Department has offered a breakdown of the $5.2 billion in reductions.

About $1.7 billion of the subtractions come from salary and benefits savings of reducing staff and another $1 billion is derived from reductions in funding transfers, such as grants and contributions. The biggest reduction is about $2.5 billion in operations.

The breakdown came in response to requests from Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, who had been trying to get a handle on the nature of the cuts before parliamentarians approved the budget and departmental spending. He also has issued several calls to all departments for details on the savings they intend to book.

It’s unclear how operations will be reduced and whether departments still have the room after years of cuts to book significant savings from operations, such as travel, paper, office expenses or accommodation.

Heading into the budget, the government did insist most of the savings would come from operations and not from front-line services to Canadians. Treasury Board President Tony Clement said departments were looking for long-term savings, efficiencies and a rethinking of how they do business, from revamping business processes to changes in how they deliver services.

The budget documents said the savings are supposed to come from three streams: a refocus on programs the government provides, a reduction of red tape, and modernization and reduction of back-office systems. “Back-office” typically refers to internal services that all departments use, such as finance, human resources, information technology, communications and procurement.

But the government doesn’t have a good track record on efficiency savings from “transforming” the way it works, especially with large IT projects. The Liberals promised procurement reform that was supposed to save $2.5 billion, but it never materialized and was written off.

The Conservative government has come under heavy fire for offering so few details about the spending reductions, particularly which programs and services are being cut. Opposition parties and public service unions alike argue that the lack of details has effectively silenced debate among Canadians about what services they are willing to give up for austerity.

The government ordered the reports on plans and priorities to exclude any of the reductions announced in the budget. The reports are the main public documents that show departments’ expenditure plans, their priorities, expected results and planned spending in the coming years. They also include staffing estimates.

The supplementary estimates are the next vehicle in which the government could outline details on its spending cuts, but early indications are they won’t be included in those, either.

Treasury Board officials told MPs at government operations committee this week that details may not be available until the fall.

Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author:  KATHRYN MAY

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