Posted on 03/08/2010 9:50:18 AM PST by Clive
OTTAWA -- The federal government will forgo making some political appointments this year, a move it says could save taxpayers up to $1.24-million.
But though the 245 positions to be eliminated at various boards, agencies and commissions are mostly empty now and would normally be filled by political appointees, federal New Democrats warned the cuts announced by Treasury Board President Stockwell Day are the first assault by the Conservative government on civil servants.
"We expect a real assault on the public service," said NDP MP Pat Martin. "We're braced and we're ready for it and we're going to push back if he does intend to declare war on the public service. He's in for the fight of his life."
Mr. Day said that, after reviewing the 2,700 so-called Governor-in-Council appointments pushed through the federal cabinet each year to fill posts at 200 federal organizations, it was prepared to eliminate 245 positions, most of which are already vacant.
Political appointees typically earn only a per diem rate of a few hundred dollars a day. Most such appointments require only a few days a month of work.
"This goes along with our overall approach to what we're doing in government to maximize our efficiencies," Mr. Day said. "Service to the public will not be affected."
In last week's federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabled a plan to virtually eliminate the federal deficit by the middle of 2014. A key part of that plan will be finding $17.6-billion in savings from planned government expenditures.
About half of those savings, the government said, will come through freezes on the operating budgets of most government departments.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
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can you add me to your Canada list, please?
“We expect a real assault on the public service,” said NDP MP Pat Martin. “We’re braced and we’re ready for it and we’re going to push back if he does intend to declare war on the public service. He’s in for the fight of his life.”
Oh, cry me a river for the swivel servants. They’re mostly unionized and get COLA raises every year. I, and many other Canadians, got no COLA raise last year (in fact I took a pay cut for part of the year) and won’t get one this year, either, and many more have lost their jobs. I don’t expect sympathy for civil servants with great job security to be all that high among the public.
Hey, no pain, no gain.
I lost my job too. You telling me the civil service can’t spare any?
Go Stockwell, Go Stockwell, Go Stockwell, Go Stockwell, Go Stockwell, Go Stockwell, Go Stockwell,
ad infinitum
Get rid of the political appointees, then the deadwood at the top, then eliminate the middle “management” paper pushers.
The flunkies at the bottom (the ones who actually DO the real work) can be left for the moment, after all, there aren’t many of them left after all the previous cutbacks that targetted the lower ranks.
I never thought I’d see the day that Canada would turn more conservative than the United States! Go Canada!
As for Pat Martin, the mans an idiot and I can say that because he's my idiot MP.
Under a Liberal government these positions would have been filled with patronage appointments.
Exactly. What the Liberals are most upset with is the possibility that if there were an election and through some chance Canadians were gullible enough to put them in power they would not have the opportunity to load this department as payback to people who supported them.
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