80,000 Job Cuts

That's the number that is being thrown around -- usually in indignant tweets and facebook posts claiming that the Conservatives will cut 80,000 public service jobs.  Even the MSM is quoting this figure as if it is a fait accompli.


The reality is that the number is taken from a quote by Stephen Harper on April 8th, 2011 during the unveiling of the Conservative platform.  He said

"We've got 80,000 public servants retiring over the next few years, we don't need to replace all of them"

That's it.  That's all he said.  The budget tabled by the Conservatives before the election forecast a deficit of $300 million for 2014-2015 without any savings in government spending.  Assuming an average salary of $50,000 (these are people at the end of their careers, so the figures would actually be higher in most cases), that is 6000 jobs.  2% of Canada's 283,000 public servants and we have a balanced budget.  Surely we can manage that without the system going to hell.


The thing that upsets me most (as usual) is the way the MSM is reporting this figure!  TheStar.com published an article last Friday with the following misleading information:

The savings can be achieved through “modest” cuts in government operations and by allowing the federal public service to be reduced by one-third through attrition, Harper said.

Notice there are no quotes around this supposed quote?  This is just a gross paraphrasing of Harper's April 8th statement.


In another part of the article it says:

He says the Conservatives can eliminate Ottawa’s $40-billion annual budget deficit by 2014 rather than 2015 as forecast by Flaherty in March. 

This $40-billion dollar figure has been out of date for almost a year.  It is the estimated deficit from last year's budget.  By the time Flaherty tabled this year's budget, the number was already down to $34-billion, and mid-way through the campaign the government was on target for a $28-billion deficit.  The inflated figure was used in the article to make it seem less likely that the Conservatives could pull off balancing the budget by 2014 without slashing the public service.