The Parti Québécois wants to reduce the size of the state, which has swelled with more than 10,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) civil servants since 2018.
• Also read: Increase in the size of government and budgetary rigor: Minister Sonia LeBel does not want to cut civil servants
• Also read: Number of civil servants: the size of the Quebec state reaches a new peak
“I think we need to reduce the number of civil servants in terms of administrative control,” said Paul St-Pierre Plamondon bluntly on Thursday.
There are now 78,836 ETC employees in ministries and agencies, 15% more than when François Legault’s government came to power. The one who holds the purse strings, Minister Sonia LeBel, does not want to reduce the number of civil servants.
The sovereignist leader is not of the same opinion. Based on the report of the Public Protector, he particularly deplores the multiplication of layers of bureaucracy in the State apparatus, to the detriment of services to citizens.
The PQ leader maintains that since the Gomery and Charbonneau commissions of inquiry, structural reforms aim above all to protect the image of the government. Bureaucracy “prevents people from working in the field, who end up spending a large part of their time filling out control and then validation forms,” he argues.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says he firmly believes in the expertise of the Quebec public service, so that it is not dependent on the private sector.
“But if we grow the civil service apparatus for controls and layers of bureaucracy while the services suffer… we are in the opposite logic of redistributing these same sums in services to the population” , he insisted.
He did not fail to recall the new structures created by the Legault government, such as Santé Québec or Mobilité Infra. “And what about services to the population?”
The PQ number one did not want to talk about the civil servant positions that would be eliminated under a PQ government. The game plan will be revealed later, with a view to the next elections in 2026.
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