Saskatchewan Office

March 24, 2010

Saskatchewan Budget 2010: Quality of our public services sure to suffer

Regina — Brad Wall stated that this year’s budget would lead Saskatchewan down “a different path.” Unfortunately, in a manner that is far too reminiscent of other conservative governments, the Saskatchewan Party has decided to make the public service bear the brunt of the government’s financial miscalculations.

The government plans to eliminate 15 percent of the civil service over four years along with the complete elimination of Saskatchewan Communications Network, the public educational broadcaster. Whether the government accomplishes these reductions through attrition, it will still mean a considerably smaller public service to deliver public programs.

The government seems to believe that the implementation of lean management-styles and other New Public Management reforms will be able to ensure the continuing delivery of quality public services with the bare minimum of public servants.

However these types of reforms – sometimes referred to as “management-by-stress” – have been roundly criticized in other jurisdictions as leading to the erosion of service delivery, as too much emphasis on cost reduction and the pursuit of efficiency at all costs leads to flawed policies with short-term gains, undermining the capacity of government to take a long-term perspective on issues such as education, technology, health and the environment.

The public service can only be expected to do so much with less support, less resources and less employees. No flavour of the month management style can remedy an under-staffed and over-loaded public service.

This government needs to be much clearer on what types of reforms and cuts it intends to introduce in the public sector and how these will affect service delivery in the province. Until the government does this, it simply stretches the imagination that we can lose 15 percent our public servants and not experience poorer quality services.

Simon Enoch, PhD
Director
Saskatchewan Office of the Canadian Centre
for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)

In partnership with RealRenewal, CCPA Saskatchewan is proud to present an education workshop for people who want a voice in the system.

Featuring Jacqui Strachan, Parent Involvement Coordinator, People for Education, Ontario.

Discussion Roundtables on Saskatchewan Aboriginal/First Nations, Rural and Urban Education Issues 

Sunday, March 14, 2010 

1:00 - 4:30 p.m. 

Pasqua Neighbourhood Centre, Regina 

263 Lewvan Dr. (off Wascana St.) 

Free of Charge - Childcare Provided. 

Limited seats. Please register online at www.realrenewal.org or call 585-4449. 

For more information, visit us here.

The following editorial appeared in the March 2nd edition of the Regina Leader-Post.

Barbara Yaffe's Feb. 20 column, "Public sector should share our pain," is a perfect example of the current misinformation campaign over public sector pensions.

Public sector pensions are defined benefit plans which workers pay into, deferring present income for the future. In 2008, retired public service workers received an annual average pension of $23,422, hardly overly generous.

Our current deficit is the result of increased Employment Insurance benefits and stimulus spending, it has nothing to do with public sector pensions, which as the most recent actuarial report shows, is adequately funded and has a surplus.

Rather than attacking public workers, we should be asking why private sector pension plans have proved so inadequate as a means to secure a decent retirement for Canadian workers.

If anything, the private sector should be emulating the stability of public sector plans.

All Canadians deserve retirement security, whether in the public or private sector. Engaging in a race to the bottom over pension benefits will only leave us all poorer as a result.

Simon Enoch

Enoch is Director, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives -- Saskatchewan Office.

The Social Policy Research Unit at the University of Regina has posted a video of the Regina night of our "Future of Social Democracy" event held last October. For those of you that missed Armine Yalnizyan and Murray Dobbin speak on the continuing relevance of the Regina Manifesto, here is your chance to experience two great speakers and their thoughts on the future of social democracy in our country. 

The video can be viewed here.

Simon Enoch, Director of the Saskatchewan office, will present a public lecture on the future of environmental politics at the University of Regina on January 15th.

Simon's presentation, "Green Leviathan Reborn? Authoritarianism and the Contradictions of Ecological Crisis," will investigate the emergence of authoritarian responses to the current environmental crisis and the absolute necessity of a participatory democratic politics to any viable solution to the present crisis.

Time and location can be found here.

The second part of our "Future of Social Democracy" event is now available as a podcast. Listen to Murray Dobbin as he outlines what it will take to renew social democracy in Canada.

Armine Yalnizyan joined us in Saskatoon in October to speak on the continuing relevance of the Regina Manifesto. To listen to Armine's powerful and entertaining talk, visit here.

The Social Policy Research Unit at the University of Regina has just released its report card on child and family poverty in the province. Paul Gingrich and Fiona Douglas - the study's authors - report some troubling findings:

• In 2007, there were 35,000 (16.7%) children under age 18 living beneath the poverty line (before-tax Low Income Cut-off) in Saskatchewan. 

• Saskatchewan has the third highest provincial child poverty rate. 

• 45% of Aboriginal children live in low-income families. 

• More than one in three immigrant children are poor. 

• 20% of children spent three or more years in poverty, exceeding the national average of 15%. 

• One-third of poor children live in families with full-time, full-year employment. 

For more details, view the full report here. 

For more details on income inequality in Saskatchewan, view the CCPA's "Boom and Bust: The Growing Income Gap in Saskatchewan," here.

Simon Enoch, Director of the Saskatchewan Office, comments on the return of debt crisis rhetoric with the current recession and what it may mean for Canada's public sector.