Reduction in the size of the State: PSPP is falling into populism, deplores the civil servants’ union

The civil servants’ union accuses Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Québécois of falling into populism by wanting to reduce the number of state employees. “René Lévesque and his acolytes must be turning in their graves!”

The PQ leader has announced his colors: He wants to cut bureaucracy and reduce the size of the public administration, which has swelled by more than 10,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) civil servants since 2018.

There are now 78,836 ETC employees in ministries and agencies, 15% more than when the CAQ government came to power, despite promises of reductions. PSPP did not want to talk about the positions that would be eliminated under a PQ government. The game plan will be revealed later, in view of the next elections.

“You would think you were hearing François Legault! He has the same speech as François Legault in 2016, when he was ahead in the polls and wanted to be elected for the first time,” complains the president of the Union of Public and Parapublic Services of Quebec (SFPQ), Christian Daigle.

Heaping sugar on the backs of civil servants is a “populist” argument that demonizes the work of public sector employees, he insists.

The trade unionist points out that the population continues to grow and that there are now fewer state workers per capita than 20 years ago. “In 2004, the ratio was 9.4 civil servants per 1000 inhabitants and today we are at 8.6.”

During this time, the number of programs and services offered to citizens has increased. But above all, the increase in the size of the State has occurred largely among the leaders, not among the workers and employees who work with the population.

“My numbers at the SFPQ are decreasing every year. It is the number of professionals, but above all the number of executives and managers that is increasing, so if we want to cut, let us cut managers and executives because there are fewer Indians at the bottom and there are more leaders at the top,” adds the union president.

The PQ, the workers’ party?

Christian Daigle does not hide his surprise that the leader of the PQ, a party traditionally closer to workers, now wants to cut civil servants.

He also did not digest the exit of PQ MP Pascal Bérubé who, on the same day, tabled a motion for the government to take legislative and regulatory measures so that the ferry between Matane, Baie-Comeau and Godbout is recognized as an essential service. According to him, this is a “revolt” against union members, who are free to exercise their right to strike during a labor dispute.

“René Lévesque and his acolytes must be turning in their graves,” he says. Christian Daigle says he is open to meeting PSPP to direct him to the Quebec public service.

However, remember that the Lévesque government imposed a temporary salary cut of nearly 20% on public sector employees in 1982, when Quebec was in recession.