Mark Carney’s Canadian government recently announced an impressive stretch goal. Specifically, they propose to cut public expenditure by 15% over the next three years. Beyond creating jobs this new initiative has generated intense discussion among various stakeholders, especially over how the program will affect employment in public services. Critics say the government’s plan to reduce public sector staffing through attrition is not just misguided, it’s broken.
None of these changes would have saved us from the string of bad appointments that Finance Minister François Philippe Champagne recently announced are coming up. He’s going to cut overall operational spending in the fall budget. Carney’s administration says they will mostly eliminate positions through attrition. This is because when staff retire or move to other positions, they are not replacing those employees. However, this strategy has met with disbelief from experts and union leaders.
Marc Lee, an economist, underscored a deeply troubling point. Even in a scenario where the federal government ceases all new hiring, we find that it will not achieve the promised 15% savings. He underscored the need to make tough decisions about which services will be affected in order to achieve these ambitious fiscal targets.
“No, we’re not going to actually cut any services, we’re not going to cut transfers to provinces or people. But if they want to meet that target, something’s got to give at the end of the day.” – Marc Lee
Sharon DeSousa, the national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, defends passionately against Carney’s allegations. She has been loud and clear that she is opposed to it. She warned that the claim cuts to public services will only be through attrition is “flat-out misleading.” DeSousa further pointed to the fact that thousands of these permanent public servants have already experienced the pink slip of death via direct layoff.
This has complicated public service worker retention though, as last year over 4000 term employees were let go. This should send everyone into a tizzy over job security in the public sector. Notably, over three-quarters of these layoffs affected individuals under the age of 35, prompting questions about the future workforce within public service roles.
Public policy expert Evert Lindquist noted that attrition is an inevitable part of any workforce management strategy. As he noted, for many of those employees who are leaving there will not be replacements. This will only add to the existing staffing shortages across the public service as the government continues its march towards their anti-public, austerity agenda.
“So that’s always something to watch.” – Evert Lindquist
That same day, senior public servant Michael Wernick condemned the government’s passive approach to cutting the size of the public service as “sort of random.” Instead, he recommended a much more positive, proactive approach. Rather than relying on pathologically uncertain attrition patterns, the federal government should develop a systematic labor force plan to identify where payroll reductions and increases are most necessary.
“If you’re relying on attrition, you’re saying a random pattern of where people die or get sick or retire or leave for other jobs is going to guide you and it begs the question … then what?” – Michael Wernick
Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney acknowledged the difficulty of managing the public sector payroll. Among them, he noted, are stressors that drive workers to quit. He noted that people tend to leave for a variety of reasons, such as retirement and lucrative options in the private sector.
“There’s a certain age cohort in the public sector. People leave employment, whether it’s in the public or private sector, for a variety of reasons. Attractive opportunities outside, retirement on the other side. So we’ll be managing through that.” – Mark Carney
Based on the latest numbers, the federal public service collectively employed around 319,877 workers last year. Over this time, there were about 8,000 retirement exits and about 2,200 resignation exits. These numbers underscore that adapting to inevitable changes in the workforce will be a challenge. Budgetary constraints continue to pose the biggest roadblock to maintaining robust public service efforts.
