Public service employment has grown by 31 per cent

[McG]

After DRAP, NDHQ (and I assume a lot of federal departments) plugged holes with contractors/consultants to continue to push processes that remained obligatory (and in some cases simultaneously became more complex). Two years ago, there was a lot of noise about contractors/consultants and so CA HQ (and I assume other NDHQ staffs as well as other federal departments) shifted from contractors to public servants. If this is just going to be another pendulum swing with contractors filling government workspaces, managing government workloads with government email ... well, we will just be wasting time.

 

[Remius]

Oh, please.

I won’t try and convince you. They were cutting before the election and will keep cutting. This isn’t new or unforeseen. But if it makes you feel better that Ottawa ridings are getting some sort of comeuppance thinking cuts wouldn’t be coming fill your boots. Union noise, PS Reddit threads, office cooler talk from multiple departments were all and are talking about it.

I remember reading interviews in April with public servants who were certain the gravy train would never end under the LPC and voted accordingly.

Links? I’d love to see anything that had a Public servant saying that lol. Anyone saying that is not paying attention.

I am not saying that you didn’t see it coming, but I feel like others only wanted to see what they wanted to see.

I’m sure there are. I can assure you though, that the message we’ve been getting for some time is to brace for leaner times. Before an election was even called.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

I won’t try and convince you. They were cutting before the election and will keep cutting. This isn’t new or unforeseen. But if it makes you feel better that Ottawa ridings are getting some sort of comeuppance thinking cuts wouldn’t be coming fill your boots. Union noise, PS Reddit threads, office cooler talk from multiple departments were all and are talking about it.

Links? I’d love to see anything that had a Public servant saying that lol. Anyone saying that is not paying attention.

I’m sure there are. I can assure you though, that the message we’ve been getting for some time is to brace for leaner times. Before an election was even called.

So, there are currently 64 Assistant or Associate Deputy Ministers without a job. They stay home and get paid rather than be retired or reassigned.

They are all Ex-03 or 04 with an average salary range of 220K and 250K.

Maybe start cutting there......

 

[Good2Golf]

‘Worst cuts in modern history’: Report warns of cuts to public service for Liberals to meet campaign promise

The Liberal government’s plan to find billions of dollars in operating efficiencies would require a 24 per cent cut in public service spending and “devastate the federal government,” according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

www.ctvnews.ca

Some hard decisions will be made.

I have come to believe that the PS ia the single largest sea anchor for our economy...and our country. Bring it on...if they dare

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has always opposed cutting government jobs.

IFF (in the computer science ‘If and Only If’ sense ) Trudeau’s 31+% increase in the PS had resulted in even a modest correlation in bureaucratic productivity, I would perhaps shed a tear or two, or maybe even squeeze out a sniffle or two, for the PS.

But here we are.

Oh, please.

I remember reading interviews in April with public servants who were certain the gravy train would never end under the LPC and voted accordingly.

I am not saying that you didn’t see it coming, but I feel like others only wanted to see what they wanted to see.

I bet if Trudeau had stayed and somehow won the election, he himself would have backed off his drunken sailor-like PS growth spending spree.

 

[Remius]

So, there are currently 64 Assistant or Associate Deputy Ministers without a job. They stay home and get paid rather than be retired or reassigned.

They are all Ex-03 or 04 with an average salary range of 220K and 250K.

Maybe start cutting there......

And the easiest to cut.

 

[Remius]

I bet if Trudeau had stayed and somehow won the election, he himself would have backed off his drunken sailor-like PS growth spending spree.

He already was. And I have no doubt had he stayed on, that we would be where we are this summer facing cuts.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

So, there are currently 64 Assistant or Associate Deputy Ministers without a job. They stay home and get paid rather than be retired or reassigned.

They are all Ex-03 or 04 with an average salary range of 220K and 250K.

Maybe start cutting there......

After much searching I found this source:

Population of the Federal Public Service by Executive Level - Canada.ca

www.canada.ca

So, there are 1635 EX03 and 375 EX04, for a total of 2010 (which is wild in and of itself). The 64 paid but non-employed ADMs represent 3% of the total EX at that rank.

Brutal.

 

[dapaterson]

ADMs are more likely to be EX05. DMs have a separate pay scale; depending on the department, Associate DMs may also be classified as DMs (unlike regular ADMs).

 

[PPCLI Guy]

ADMs are more likely to be EX05. DMs have a separate pay scale; depending on the department, Associate DMs may also be classified as DMs (unlike regular ADMs).

I know of a few ADMs that were EX03 and 04, and I based it in that. If they are usually EX 05 then the 64 represent 35% of the total EX05 population of of 183.

That is criminal level abuse of the system.

 

[YZT580]

He already was. And I have no doubt had he stayed on, that we would be where we are this summer facing cuts.

but without any new energy plans in the works (oh, wait, that is still the case), arguing over the 51st state, and with the gas tax still in place.

 

[Navy_Pete]

After DRAP, NDHQ (and I assume a lot of federal departments) plugged holes with contractors/consultants to continue to push processes that remained obligatory (and in some cases simultaneously became more complex). Two years ago, there was a lot of noise about contractors/consultants and so CA HQ (and I assume other NDHQ staffs as well as other federal departments) shifted from contractors to public servants. If this is just going to be another pendulum swing with contractors filling government workspaces, managing government workloads with government email ... well, we will just be wasting time.

In other spots, we couldn't get SWE to backfill empty positions, or SWE to keep up with emerging requirements, so we contracted people full time to fill those empty jobs (and able to do about 80% of it), and increased the contract management burden.

Across the CAF we've also outsourced a lot of work to ISSCs, which can be good/bad, but sometimes means you can't actually deploy a TAV unless the unit comes way out of the op box to get fixed.

Ups and downs to each approach, but generally speaking about 2/3rd the cost to have a full time PS employee compared to filling the job with a contractor, and much less management than a staffing contract and the financial side of things (plus security clearances, annual DRMIS renewal etc etc). And for some stuff we actually need a CAF member, for risk/security reasons, but may not have anyone with the skillset anymore because we've outsourced it all.

 

[dapaterson]

but generally speaking about 2/3rd the cost to have a full time PS employee compared to filling the job with a contractor

The opaque nature of government accounting makes it difficult to make such claims... the local budget pay cost ignores the all in personnel cost of a PS employee... And CAF members are significantly more expensive, though, again, the Reg F pay cost (charged centrally) ignores the additional costs associated with payroll, to say nothing of the medical, dental and training costs.

TL;DR accounting is complex

 

[Navy_Pete]

The opaque nature of government accounting makes it difficult to make such claims... the local budget pay cost ignores the all in personnel cost of a PS employee... And CAF members are significantly more expensive, though, again, the Reg F pay cost (charged centrally) ignores the additional costs associated with payroll, to say nothing of the medical, dental and training costs.

TL;DR accounting is complex

Up to a certain point though; when you include the SWE required to oversee the contracting process (at a level or two higher than the position), and all the things they can't do as a contractor that a PS can, there is no way it's cheaper.

And then efficiency wise it's ridiculous; we were forced to hire the people backfilling LCMM roles on an annual tasking because of how the contracting authority insisted we set it up, so their DRMIS accounts were only valid until 31 Mar and needed to get renewed. That could take anywhere from 2-5 months with the lag for task renewal, and re-verification of their clearance before DRMIS account recreation, to do something that is a core job function for an LCMM.

And for the accountants keeping track of that stuff, there is also the lost opportunity cost for the people running the contract and covering that 20% not being done, so other things that could have gotten done didn't (like buy parts, or just not work 80 hours).

It's an insane permanent 'temporary' solution, that only works because some financial dweeb thinks $150k is magic money if it's on another line item, while also thinking any of our equipment holds residual value after beating the ever living crap out of it for 15 years past it's end of life.