Chris Selley: What did we get for 100,000 new federal civil servants?
It would behoove the unions to provide more examples, if any exist, if they really want to save all these jobs. Because people tend to remember negative interactions with government much more than they do positive ones. Not every call to CRA or visit to the passport office is a disaster, obviously. But you'll hear far more about the disasters around the water cooler than you will about times it all went as it should have. I have never encountered anyone arguing we're far better off for those 100,000 extra employees. I very much suspect we are not.
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Naturally, the bloat isn't just among frontline workers. A memo from Chief Human Resources Officer Jacqueline Bogden, obtained by National Post, indicates an intention to target government executives as well — their number having ballooned in recent years, and not, Bogden thinks, for any particularly good reason.
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'New (executive) jobs at all levels are created, in many cases without a significant change in the organization's mandate,' her memo reads. 'In essence, this can mean that the same pie is being sliced in smaller pieces.' She notes a report by the Public Service Management Advisory Committee finding that nearly half of core public service departments have more executives aboard than the officially recommended complement.
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This certainly isn't what Carney promised on the campaign trail. Spare a thought for Bruce Fanjoy, the Liberal MP who dethroned Pierre Poilievre in Carleton — in large part, it is often argued, by appealing to public servants worried about job cuts under a Conservative government.
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'Pierre's plan would cut 100,000 public service jobs over 10 years, at a time when we need all hands on deck to defend our country from Donald Trump's trade war. Carleton, you deserve better,' Fanjoy wrote on X just before election day.
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