I have in the past used information from the Canadian TaxPayers Federation, so I feel it would be remiss of me if I didn’t include their latest YouTube video as part of my I am a Civil Servant, set of writings.
The points made by the TaxPayers Federation are valid and interesting, however, I somehow feel there is an implication that Government Employees are all overpaid, etc., in the delivery of the message (yes, they don’t say it, but I am reading between the lines). The e-mail that pointed to the clip did include the following paragraph (which does make the point a lot clearer that Civil Servants are all RICH, or will be with their pensions):
After all, you along with every other Canadian, each owe about $6,776 and counting in additional taxes to pay for the rich federal government employee pension plan. That’s of course on top of our federal debt. Federal bureaucrat pension plans are short $227 billion due to the rich, unsustainable payouts negotiated.
Blaming Civil Servants for having a generous pension is interesting, so PSAC should have negotiated a crappier set of benefits?!? (apologies, that is flippant, but still valid) Also, another reason the pension fund is short is due to the Federal Government raiding the fund in the 90’s, and bad investments as well (which all pension plans are now suffering through).
I believe the TaxPayers Federation will get their wish somewhat when the new Government budget comes down, and the Government will then explain how much money will be spent this year on severance packages for the LARGE cut back in the Civil Service (this will not be scalpel cuts, this will be Chain Saw hacking, similar to the early 90’s, is what my sources are saying).
Wonder what the Federation is going to say about the severance packages given to the Civil Servants? I guess that remains to be seen.
” Prime Minister Stephen Harper quietly hired private consultants in late summer to advise his government on how to cut $4 billion. It’s unlikely taxpayers will ever know whether the $19.8 million contract to Deloitte was worth the price..”
” All three levels of government have highly trained public servants who are paid to provide well-researched, impartial financial advice. Yet all three have turned to outsiders”
19.8 Million dollars!
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1134798–outsourcing-the-new-way-to-balance-government-budgets-in-canada