Public service employment has grown by 31 per cent

[RangerRay]

Without even the courtesy of an interview though, right?

Interview? That’s crazy talk! They just swing the axe wildly with no rhyme or reason.

 

[Kirkhill]

The only way to effectively shrink the PS is to close (consolidate) entire programmes - something that is very, very hard to do because every single one has a "cheering section" of voters - and let attrition do its thing.

A good, effective public service needs constant renewal AND it needs good, experienced senior management; hence "natural" attrition.

One way to force some useful attrition is to get rid of some minor portfolios and make several serving ministers into associate (junior) ministers in other departments and then reduce the number of DMs, Assoc DMs and ADMs with their attendant (and generally late large) bands of acolytes.

Amalgamate in the name of efficiency.

Nothing is removed it is simply buried.

 

[Good2Golf]

Recent reports in the media show that CBSA is short between 1800 and 3000 front line officers that were cut during the Harper years and never replaced under Trudeau. Automation projects, such as the PIK machines at airports, have not reduced the human workforce need and some have actually made it worse and slowed traveler processing (cough, cough "ArriveCan"). Their workload has grown exponentially and looks to increase even more thanks to President-elect Trump putting long-overdue pressure on the Liberal government to take border security seriously. I don't see that pressure being relaxed for a CPC government at all.

And yet CRA, growing larger than the effective *stained trained strength of the CAF regular force, from 40,000 in 2015 to over 59,000 in 2024, “can’t find” where Employment and Social Development Canada gave out $15B of CERB overpayments…

Population of the federal public service by department or agency - Canada.ca

This data table shows the number of employees for each government department, each separate agency (excluding Crown Corporations), and the number of ministers' exempt staff, for each year from 2005 to the present.

www.canada.ca

 

[QV]

Interesting numbers... CRA is a big outlier as GTG states... I thought DND would have had more growth. But today they are close to their 2010 number.

Immigration/Refugee tripled.... RCMP Civ almost doubled... PSPC grew by almost 50%...Immigration Board almost doubled....Employment & Social development went from 26k to 39k....

Plenty of room to make cuts without hindering defence. Streamlining the income tax regulations could probably reduce the CRA number by 2/3. Fixing procurement could bring that number down.

27,291

27,394

27,177

24,939

23,146

22,611

22,954

23,178

24,024

25,278

26,047

26,422

26,399

27,356

28,740

[th]

National Defence​

[/th]​

 

[Remius]

Interesting numbers... CRA is a big outlier as GTG states... I thought DND would have had more growth. But today they are close to their 2010 number.

CRA relies heavily on terms so a lot of that can easily be cut.

Immigration/Refugee tripled.... RCMP Civ almost doubled... PSPC grew by almost 50%...Immigration Board almost doubled....Employment & Social development went from 26k to 39k....

RCMP numbers will look weird when factoring the reduction of civilian members and replacing them with public servants. So not really doubled but certainly increased with certain emerging sectors like cyber.

Plenty of room to make cuts without hindering defence. Streamlining the income tax regulations could probably reduce the CRA number by 2/3. Fixing procurement could bring that number down.

[/th]​

Assuming they get it right. I’m pretty sure they won’t.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Amalgamate in the name of efficiency.

Nothing is removed it is simply buried.

Just remember, the Boss has the hardest time of all

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[Kirkhill]

Just remember, the Boss has the hardest time of all

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View this content on Instagram

Danish system worked well. Promote a new boss. Have him wield the axe. Then fire the executioner.

 

[FJAG]

Was looking for a thread to drop this into and this one will do - it's close enough.

Scanning the National Post today and came across this article.

FIRST READING: Canada's subsidized Tim Hortons lose another $500,000

Operating out of Windsor Regional Hospital, they're likely the country's only Tim Hortons consistently losing money

nationalpost.com

It caught my attention because some forty or so years ago, my wife was on a small volunteer committee that ran the thrift shop at the Brandon General Hospital. The thrift shops mandate is to sell suitable new merchandise that people can buy as gifts. (It's not a used clothing type of place - this is everything from candles to large ornaments etc) The profits go into the hospital to buy new equipment such as MRIs.

Anyway they thought about a new way to make money and finally settled on opening a Tim Horton's in the hospital, which they did and which has been raking in the cash ever since making huge profits and was, at least back then, one of the most profitable franchises going. So naturally I said to myself. "How can you lose money on a Timmy's?" The answer in one word is unions. The hourly rate paid at the hospital's Timmy's staff is nearly twice the minimum wage. The balance sheets are in the article.

The issue starkly showcases the trouble with public sector unions for whom the balance sheet for operations are entirely meaningless. If there are losses you just go to the public and claw some additional cash out of it in taxes. There are clearly some public service organizations that have no income generated to base a profit/loss analysis on, but for something like a cafeteria (and at the end of the day that's what a Timmy's is) which sells a service/product to the public, profit should matter. Where I live now is a moderate-sized regional hospital which has a small coffee shop where most of the food comes out of a Japanese style vending machine albeit there is counter staff as well. Like in Brandon, it's run by a hospital volunteer auxiliary which is currently on a campaign to raise a million dollars for new equipment.

It boggles my mind that hospital administrators, like those in Windsor, would run an operation that loses a half million annually.

 

[captloadie]

This is unfortunately not a new story. About 5 years ago I remember seeing the same issue, unionized employees running the Tim's in a hospital, it losing money and having to be closed. Smart unions years ago would have seen that some sort of clause was added to not allow outside contracted services operate within the premises. While likely initially meant to keep from contracting out cleaners and such, the knock on effects are now being seen.
I wonder if there are specific clauses in the contracts that are allowing Administrations to contract out to temp agencies to provide extra nurses, admin staff etc., and what the limits are to enact those contracts.

 

[dapaterson]

It would be as if you ran convenience stores selling tobacco and energy drinks to soldiers, and lost money doing it.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Productivity boost anticipated

Netflix and other streaming services now blocked on federal government networks​

‘Streaming services are not considered work tools,’ says government IT agency​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netflix-blocked-federal-networks-1.7402102?cmp=newsletter_Morning%20Headlines%20from%20CBC%20News_1613_1832521

 

[Remius]

Productivity boost anticipated

Netflix and other streaming services now blocked on federal government networks​

‘Streaming services are not considered work tools,’ says government IT agency​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netflix-blocked-federal-networks-1.7402102?cmp=newsletter_Morning%20Headlines%20from%20CBC%20News_1613_1832521

lol. I never even knew it was accessible.

 

[dimsum]

lol. I never even knew it was accessible.

Right? Now I feel cheated.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Productivity boost anticipated

Netflix and other streaming services now blocked on federal government networks​

‘Streaming services are not considered work tools,’ says government IT agency​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netflix-blocked-federal-networks-1.7402102?cmp=newsletter_Morning%20Headlines%20from%20CBC%20News_1613_1832521

They used to block all sorts of sites, including FN Band websites, would have to justify at least once every 2 months to unblock a website.

 

[Good2Golf]

lol. I never even knew it was accessible.

 

[Remius]

Good piece on the approach PP will have to take with the PS.

MacDougall: Poilievre's cuts to the public service won't be easy to make

Part of the reason the public service got so big under Justin Trudeau is because it took its cues from the man at the top.

ottawacitizen.com

 

[Fishbone Jones]

It boggles my mind that hospital administrators, like those in Windsor, would run an operation that loses a half million annually.

Im not surprised. That's status quo around here. Yet those same administrators give themselves raises all the time because of the great job they're doing.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

It would be as if you ran convenience stores selling tobacco and energy drinks to soldiers, and lost money doing it.

You gotta sell spits to stay solvent

 

[OldSolduer]

And yet CRA, growing larger than the effective *stained trained strength of the CAF regular force, from 40,000 in 2015 to over 59,000 in 2024, “can’t find” where Employment and Social Development Canada gave out $15B of CERB overpayments…

Population of the federal public service by department or agency - Canada.ca

This data table shows the number of employees for each government department, each separate agency (excluding Crown Corporations), and the number of ministers' exempt staff, for each year from 2005 to the present.

www.canada.ca

Fire them. Fire them all. Then hire the ones that are like pit bulls when it comes to finding money. Perhaps the RCMP could help them along....with the assistance of forensic accountants.

15 BILLION is nothing to sneeze at.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Fire them. Fire them all. Then hire the ones that are like pit bulls when it comes to finding money. Perhaps the RCMP could help them along....with the assistance of forensic accountants.

15 BILLION is nothing to sneeze at.

Trudeau sneezes a lot.