Government Staffing Levels: What is Right? |
Because provincial government employment has grown since 1996, Murray Mandryk (in his column of Jan. 28) argues that Saskatchewan's “burgeoning civil service” should be cut back.
He contrasts this increase with a slight decline in Saskatchewan's population since 2001.
But it should be noted that Saskatchewan's employed workforce has expanded substantially since 1996.
Other things being equal, one might have expected public-sector employment to grow at about the same rate.
The more significant point is that other things were not equal.
Following deep cutbacks in the early 1990s, public employment was artificially low in 1996, making that year an absurd benchmark against which to compare current public employment.
The government of Saskatchewan balanced the provincial budget by laying-off healthcare workers, running down medical equipment, not maintaining highways properly, and allowing schools and municipal infrastructure to erode.
Such measures may have been necessary responses to a fiscal crisis, but they were certainly not sustainable: healthcare workers had to be rehired, worn-out equipment had to be replaced, highways had to be repaired, and other infrastructure had to be kept up.
To a large extent, the provincial budget was balanced by deferring public expenditures that had to be made at some point.
Cutbacks in the past thereby necessitated increased provincial spending and employment in the present.
Unfortunately, the government of Saskatchewan has delivered unprecedented tax cuts, depriving itself of the revenue needed to fund these inevitable increases.
As a share of GDP, Saskatchewan's provincial expenditures have actually fallen since 1999. Had the government simply maintained its revenues as a constant share of GDP rather than reducing them, its financial problems would not have arisen.
Having just won an election promising to defend important public services, the provincial government should disregard Mandryk's advice to slash the employees who deliver these services.
Instead, it should use progressive means to raise the revenues needed to sustain not only short-term operating spending but also the capital investments that are essential to the future prosperity of Saskatchewan.