I would phrase this slightly different: behind the pay cut for MPs, insert: an annual 5% reduction in subsidies of any kind. This insert is crucial because an examination of all federal expenditures could be taking years, because politicians will rely on the bureaucrats and the civil services to accomplish this. An independently operationg audit bureau should examine the effect of all proposed policies and election platforms.

Annual service plans for BC Government do not indicate that there is anything more than the usual attrition due to retirement. For those who have the inclination and knowledge check the full time equivalent (FTE) status in the latest Federal Budget documents.

I have heard that the Province of New Brunswick is or has laid off 200 civil servants and has frozen their pay for two years. No mention of the elected MLA’s taking a cut in pay.

Wakey wakey people, we already work 2.5 days a week for the government. Soon, we will be working full time to pay for the privilege of having our lives managed from a central bureaucracy. Sound famiilar? It should, it has happened before in the form of communism and totalitarianism. You know, Stalin and Hitler? If you think i am crazy, do some research about the history of these movements and the climate that bred them. It is all eerily familiar.

The civil service is much too large and is dominated by Quebecers, both in numbers and occupation of senior appointments. And, incredibly, it keeps growing even in hard times like the present. An independent audit would help, but a PM and Cabinet with the guts and determinination to cut back on numbers, pay and benefits (especially the outrageous travel allowances) would be a big benefit to taxpayers. It would also be a big surprise.

PJM

We are presently in Florida and the local paper the other day noted that there had been an increase in total employment for this country’s federal government of 5000 since the first of the year. Reductions HAH!!

Interesting how the Neo-Cons are complaining loudly & more often of late, about Mr. Harper’s embracing much of the Lefty agenda in order to stay in power, which is true. He has done so, of course, to break the threat of the Coalition that would otherwise take us to Jack Layton Land if it ever got into power. But recent polls suggest that rather than being rewarded for this inclusive approach by the rightest Liberal swing vote, Mr. Harper and his government are being punished for their good deeds. And all the while, Mr. Ignatieff is brazenly & openly sucking up to the Tory strongholds, apparently with success, as also reflected by the polls.

How much can Harper lose if he just goes hard right to get his agenda through as long as the Libs are afraid of an election?

So, on today’s question, he should also, while he has the chance, absolutely eviscerate the bureaucratic ranks of wasteful spending whether it’s salaries or out-of-pockets. It seems he will be out on his butt in the snow next election anyway, so it’s a no lose and he can go out in a blaze of Conservative glory. Such a program would also set up the future comparatives to show the wateful spending increases of his Liberal successors, thereby giving the Tories a shot at a win after the next, inevitable, Liberal left turn in Canada.

Or just maybe, miraculously, such a transparent act will rally support for him and his government.

The voices of the Right in this country have rarely been able to overcome, for long, the decibel level and the pervasive influence of The Liberal Daily Bugle, aka, CBC, CTV these days and a huge majority of local, daily, urban newspapers like The Toronto Star. C’est la guerre.

There should be a cut in civil servant employees as a result of the recession. With the decrease in economic activity there should be less for them all to do. I suspect a reduction of 10% in the civil service would make no difference to the level of service the government is supplying.
And what is with the advertising by the Canada Revenue Agency about all the benefits available to people. Why does the govt. have to advertise about all the money it can’t wait to refund. If people want the maximum tax benefit they can hire an accountant.

Re Warrens comments in the newLiberal bias at CTV.

I noticed in particularly in last Sundays Question Period Hour, where all the so called commentators take the same line as Toronto Star.
Even Craig Oliver the leader, has turned on Harper and is actively continually lauding Iggy and the Liberals He said for instance that “the latest polls show both parties even, but if you take out Alberta– Liberals are ahead and gaining .
.I’m curious to see how negative Tom Clarke’s show tonight will be on last night’s 60 minutes great interview with the FED Chairmans.Bill.d

Less, small and limited government is the answer, but it needs to be supported by a complete elimination of income taxes, which will mean freedom for entrepreneurs and many of helpless and hopeless people to find ways to become productive instead of expecting the government to do something, which will never happen. The government is not going to lay off anybody because for starters, has the oxymoron of allowing a union where there is nothing to be produced and second because politicians fool people by telling us all that they create jobs, which is a lie. Governments are the problem and never the solution. Eliminating income tax can be done and be replaced by either transaction tax or simply charging for services. But either way, the people needs to grab control back and fire the politician who still thinks we report to them. Let’s stop blaming children and marriages fro the state of the economy and focus on the culprits, the politicians that report only to the establishment refusing to let control and power go back to the legitimate owners, because after all, this is still a democracy… isn’t it?

I find it stunning that mayor miller, here in Toronto, at this time of economic hardship, now, wants to hire an additional 1200 extra human beings to work under him at Toronto city hall. Has this man lost his mind? If you have to put welfare to these people, if they qualify that’s one thing. But don’t hire 1200 more people to work at what, in Toronto city hall. But then I guess one should expect this from an NDP mayor!!!

There is no point in attacking Ottawa when the left wing opposition are dictating what the government does. NCC should go after the opposition for all of the federal woo’s. Another federal election will clear this nonsense in Ottawa once and for all.

Seriously, what government bureaucracy would ever want to lay off its own staff, thereby reducing one’s chances for promotion to assistant head, department head, deputy or assistant deputy or what have you? The greater the number of workers under a bureaucrat the greater his or her chances are for upward mobility and the higher the salary commensurate with the “promotion”. Bureaucracies foster “make work projects” for their own self aggrandizement.

“Another federal election will clear this nonsense in Ottawa once and for all. ”

“Another election” won’t clear anything up and more likely only make the state worse. Harper has been such a lame duck or what I would call a “limp-noodle” as far as being a Conservative since taking office that his government won’t stand a chance in a n y future election.
The left-wing opposition has already won the war and Harper is just keeping himself “employed” like the rest of “the political hacks” we pay dearly to “run things”.
Why layoff government workers when their the ones you need to vote for you at election time?
Harpe is a lame duck because he still doesn’t know how to win votes in a federal election in Canada, committing criminal offences while vote pandering to Qubecer’s is not the way to win votes either in Quebec or Canada. the guy is a bum. Though I still prefer the bum to whatever the opposition could be called.
If Harper wants a majority (I’m not sure he does-”limp-noodle”) he or someone who works for him better figure out how to win votes in Canada without all the pandering to special interests in the “state of” Quebec.
bums, all of them

Civil service layoffs serve no one, except the politicians who are seen to be doing something. The layoffs are always conducted within each department, without outside scrutiny, and we end up with fewer of the CS’s who do the actual WORK, while the featherbedding multiple layers of management are never touched.

The result is a department with a bloated level of paper shufflers, who deliver NO service to the public, while the lower echelons of the department lose a good percentage of the people who DO supply the service.

Civil service cuts should be conducted by private industry efficiency specialists,and then we’ll have a “leaner, meaner” CS workforce, and still deliver the service required.

Be prepared to duck when the next empty headed salvo ,already loaded, comes over.We are going to have an increase in the number of parliamentary representatives.The present representation,if instituted proportionatly in the US.would swamp the existing structure.Reducing the number is forward thinking both in respect of cost and efficiency.Never mind a paycut,cut the pay.