Spectre of 1995’s budget cuts has public sector unions on edge
Global News
Prime Minister Mark Carney pitched Canadians in the last federal election on restraining federal spending and reducing the government’s operating budget.
The spectre of the Liberals’ 1995 budget cuts loom over public sector unions as Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to introduce his first budget Tuesday.
The federal public service workforce has grown significantly over the last two decades under both Conservative and Liberal governments, and the number of federal bureaucrats is higher than its pre-pandemic peak.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who will table the Carney government’s first budget on Tuesday, has suggested that the federal workforce numbers are not “sustainable.”
But federal union leaders who spoke to Global News say cutting the public service are pushing back, arguing job cuts are not the most efficient path the reining in the government’s operating budget.
“We’ve seen a pattern in the last year, the end of the (Justin) Trudeau government until now, where the resources and support public servants need to do their jobs properly are stripped away in the name of spending restraints … And as they strip away those resources and support, the public sector gets blamed for being ineffective,” said Nathan Prier, the president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, in an interview.
“And it’s Canadians who ultimately suffer the consequences.”
Under Trudeau, the Liberals enjoyed a period of relative labour peace after public sector unions battled with Stephen Harper’s Conservatives over spending reviews and job cuts. The Trudeau Liberals also enjoyed support from large private sector unions during their tenure.
That could change, Prier agreed, if the Carney government moves ahead aggressively with public sector cuts.
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