Freeland says Ottawa's offer to public sector workers is a fair one that won't burden taxpayers
Finance minister says there's only a finite amount of money to go around
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday that the federal government's offer to striking public sector workers is a fair one that wouldn't burden the treasury with unnecessarily high wage costs at a time of economic uncertainty.
Speaking to reporters at a nuclear power plant in Pickering, Ont., Freeland said the federal government has to remember the "hardworking people of Canada" who pay public sector wages.
Echoing Treasury Board President Mona Fortier, who has said Ottawa won't write a "blank cheque" to cover big increases in public servant pay, Freeland said there's only a finite amount of money to go around and Ottawa needs the cash to fund other measures.
"The budget was clear that, in order to spend money on Canadians and on our economic capacity, in order to spend money on the clean tax credit, it is important for the government to be thoughtful about our spending on ourselves, on the spending on the operations of government," Freeland said, referring to a tax credit to spur green innovation.
Freeland's recent budget, tabled last month, calls for cuts — not increases — to government spending.
The government wants to reduce spending by about $15 billion over the next five years through cuts to professional services, consulting and travel budgets.
"Given the size of the government, that is a highly realistic, highly achievable plan," Freeland said of the proposed cuts.
The striking Public Sector Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has been calling for pay increases to help public servants cope with inflation and the higher cost of living.
PSAC is demanding a 13.5 per cent pay increase over three years (4.5 per cent annually). Some bargaining units are asking for more than that. For example, tax agency workers want a pay bump of 22.5 per cent.
The Treasury Board Secretariat, the government department that is nominally the employer of bureaucrats, has offered nine per cent over three years.
Freeland said that a nine per cent increase is reasonable — "an offer that is fair to Canada's public servants."
She also signalled some optimism that the job action will be resolved soon.
"We really believe that the way to a resolution is at the negotiating table and remain hopeful and optimistic we're going to get to a resolution soon that's in the best interest of Canadians," she said.
The strike has derailed government services.
Ottawa has essentially stopped processing passport and immigration applications (citizenship ceremonies have been cancelled) and the Canada Revenue Agency is operating at a much-reduced capacity just ahead of the tax filing deadline.
Conservative MP Jasraj Singh Hallan, the party's finance critic, said the government has shown a "special type of Liberal incompetence."
The size of the government has grown dramatically over the last seven years and yet they haven't been able to buy public sector labour peace with all that new spending, he said.
"Not even the public servants could stand this Liberal incompetence anymore," he said Thursday in question period.
NDP MP Gord John said Ottawa has spent big on outside management consultants — but is crying poor when bureaucrats come looking for higher wages.
"The Liberals seem to have no problem giving massive public handouts to their rich friends while delaying a fair deal for public sector workers," he said.
Fortier said PSAC workers provide "important services to Canadians and the government values their work."
"We're committed to reaching agreements that are competitive, that are fair to the public servants but also that are reasonable for Canadians," she said. "We're continuing at the table to get a deal and we're working very hard to get to this deal."
Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge hit back at Conservative critics Thursday, saying the Liberal government won't take lessons from a party that "cut mercilessly" when it was in power.
"They were all about austerity measures, unprecedented cuts — not to mention all the acts they tried to pass to limit the rights of unions and destroy unions in Canada," she said.
Federal statistics on the size of the public service show that the number of people on the government's payroll has climbed considerably in seven years.
In 2015, there were 257,034 federal workers — a figure that includes people working in what the government calls "core public administration" and "separate agencies."
Separate agencies include the Canada Revenue Service, Parks Canada, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and more than a dozen others.
These numbers do not include the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), the RCMP, political staff and some people working overseas.
Also excluded are workers at federal Crown corporations like Canada Post, CBC/Radio-Canada and Via Rail, which generate revenue to cover some of their costs.
In 2022, there were 335,957 federal public servants — an increase of 30.7 per cent over seven years.
Canada's population, meanwhile, grew by about 8.5 per cent in the same time period.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
