It will be one of the largest public-service cuts in Canadian history. British Columbia’s Premier Gordon Campbell made the announcement, late last month, that the Liberal government plans to cut as many as 11,550 civil servant jobs over the next three years.
That’s a 23 to 33 per cent range of reductions, eliminating one-third of B.C.’s government sector.
“British Columbia (already) has the second leanest public service in Canada,” said Mark Leier, director of the Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University. He views the downsizing as an ideological move against public services rather than what is best for the citizens of the province.
The government has said the cuts are necessary to address B.C.’s budget woes. The Ministry of Finance predicts the total provincial debt to be close to $38 billion by year-end, that’s $428 million above the July 30 forecast. By making cuts to the civil service, B.C. expects to save a total of $800 million in three years.
“There were a number of things that were at play, particularly budget legislation that promised to balance the budget by 2004. So that, along with a series of other reviews of applications, had its role to play in bringing about this scale of change,” said Vince Collins, deputy minister and commissioner of the Public Service Employee Relations Commission (PSERC).
PSERC has designed a workforce adjustment plan providing civil servant employees with a few options, including early retirement and voluntary buyout packages. Around 5,000 workers will be faced with involuntary layoffs. Also, to assist employees with the emotional strain of this transition, PSERC will be offering personal and career counselling services. Once the plan is in place, the government will fill only those positions deemed necessary. This will take effect as of January
“I have every confidence that this program will do what we expect it to, which is to transition the workforce of today to the workforce of tomorrow in an expeditious and humane way,” said Collins.
However, there are many people who don’t have confidence in the government’s new initiative.
“People in communities across B.C. are frankly mad as hell about this and want their MLAs to do what they were elected to do...and that’s represent our interests,” said George Heyman, president of the B.C. Government Employees Union (BCGEU).
Almost half of BCGEU’s members work in the provincial public sector, but Heyman said he’s not only interested in representing his workers. He is working with members of other unions, associations and with the general public to ensure their opposition is heard. He said the government has been holding the idea of massive job cuts over people’s heads for months without giving any specifics on a definite plan of action.
“They’re refusing to involve the union in discussions and we hear about it at the same time as the media. It’s a recipe for confrontational labour relations and our members are extremely upset...because our government is keeping us in the dark,” he said.
In Heyman’s address to the standing committee on finance and government services, he said these cuts would have a great impact on those in need of assistance such as the elderly, families on welfare and abused children. He said services such as child care for working parents, road safety planning and water testing would also be impacted.
Leier said the Campbell government is using public workers as a scapegoat in order to hide its own mistakes. There was a strong budget when they came into office, but it was destroyed by massive tax cuts amounting to more than $1 billion, he said.
“It’s easier for them to look for someone else to blame, as if to say they blame workers for the economic problems that business and government have created,” said Leier. “The motives they give for that — ‘We’re in a recession’ — don’t really hold up. The recession isn’t that bad.”
In fact, this will only make matters worse, he said.
“If we define recession in part by unemployment figures — that’s the kind of broad category establishing recession — dumping (almost) 13,000 people out of the workforce is likely to make the recession worse.”
The government also plans to announce a number of programs that will be reduced substantially or cancelled. Collins said this will not double the workload of a “much-diminished” workforce because there are no future plans to bring the programs back.
“This is not a matter of just reducing the public service, this is reducing the size of government expenditure, so the ability to grow back will be constrained by lack of dollars.”
Having cutbacks of this magnitude didn’t work well for other provinces. One only has to look at the Walkerton incident to figure that out, said Leier.
“I don’t want to predict that B.C. is going to have a rash of Walkerton-type incidents, let us hope not,” said Leier. “But, it does seem very difficult (to manage). How are they going to prevent those kinds of events if there is no mechanism for prevention?”
That’s a 23 to 33 per cent range of reductions, eliminating one-third of B.C.’s government sector.
“British Columbia (already) has the second leanest public service in Canada,” said Mark Leier, director of the Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University. He views the downsizing as an ideological move against public services rather than what is best for the citizens of the province.
The government has said the cuts are necessary to address B.C.’s budget woes. The Ministry of Finance predicts the total provincial debt to be close to $38 billion by year-end, that’s $428 million above the July 30 forecast. By making cuts to the civil service, B.C. expects to save a total of $800 million in three years.
“There were a number of things that were at play, particularly budget legislation that promised to balance the budget by 2004. So that, along with a series of other reviews of applications, had its role to play in bringing about this scale of change,” said Vince Collins, deputy minister and commissioner of the Public Service Employee Relations Commission (PSERC).
PSERC has designed a workforce adjustment plan providing civil servant employees with a few options, including early retirement and voluntary buyout packages. Around 5,000 workers will be faced with involuntary layoffs. Also, to assist employees with the emotional strain of this transition, PSERC will be offering personal and career counselling services. Once the plan is in place, the government will fill only those positions deemed necessary. This will take effect as of January
“I have every confidence that this program will do what we expect it to, which is to transition the workforce of today to the workforce of tomorrow in an expeditious and humane way,” said Collins.
However, there are many people who don’t have confidence in the government’s new initiative.
“People in communities across B.C. are frankly mad as hell about this and want their MLAs to do what they were elected to do...and that’s represent our interests,” said George Heyman, president of the B.C. Government Employees Union (BCGEU).
Almost half of BCGEU’s members work in the provincial public sector, but Heyman said he’s not only interested in representing his workers. He is working with members of other unions, associations and with the general public to ensure their opposition is heard. He said the government has been holding the idea of massive job cuts over people’s heads for months without giving any specifics on a definite plan of action.
“They’re refusing to involve the union in discussions and we hear about it at the same time as the media. It’s a recipe for confrontational labour relations and our members are extremely upset...because our government is keeping us in the dark,” he said.
In Heyman’s address to the standing committee on finance and government services, he said these cuts would have a great impact on those in need of assistance such as the elderly, families on welfare and abused children. He said services such as child care for working parents, road safety planning and water testing would also be impacted.
Leier said the Campbell government is using public workers as a scapegoat in order to hide its own mistakes. There was a strong budget when they came into office, but it was destroyed by massive tax cuts amounting to more than $1 billion, he said.
“It’s easier for them to look for someone else to blame, as if to say they blame workers for the economic problems that business and government have created,” said Leier. “The motives they give for that — ‘We’re in a recession’ — don’t really hold up. The recession isn’t that bad.”
In fact, this will only make matters worse, he said.
“If we define recession in part by unemployment figures — that’s the kind of broad category establishing recession — dumping (almost) 13,000 people out of the workforce is likely to make the recession worse.”
The government also plans to announce a number of programs that will be reduced substantially or cancelled. Collins said this will not double the workload of a “much-diminished” workforce because there are no future plans to bring the programs back.
“This is not a matter of just reducing the public service, this is reducing the size of government expenditure, so the ability to grow back will be constrained by lack of dollars.”
Having cutbacks of this magnitude didn’t work well for other provinces. One only has to look at the Walkerton incident to figure that out, said Leier.
“I don’t want to predict that B.C. is going to have a rash of Walkerton-type incidents, let us hope not,” said Leier. “But, it does seem very difficult (to manage). How are they going to prevent those kinds of events if there is no mechanism for prevention?”
