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The most rapid growth in public-sector employment was at the federal level. Government of Canada data indicate the federal public service now employs more than 336,000 people. As Jack Mintz, Presidents Fellow at the University of Calgarys School of Public Policy and former president of the C.D. Howe Institute, wrote in theFinancial Post in January, annual compensation of federal employees has risen from $38 billion to $58 billion since the Justin Trudeau government gained office in 2015 a 52 percent increase that far exceeds the growth in the number of federal employees. And still these workers and their unions want even more.

A study by the Fraser Institute using data for the pandemic year 2021 found that government-sector workers enjoyed a 5.5 percent wage premium over private-sector workers even after controlling for differences in age, gender, education, work type/experience, unionization and other labour market factors. Just two years later, the studys most recent edition finds, the disparity had jumped to 8.5 percent. That was before this weeks deals.

Mintzs own calculations based on Statistics Canada data suggest that the average full-time federal employee makes $75 per hour nearly $150,000 per year in wages and benefits. That is unbelievable, Mintz said in a recent interview with C2C. By contrast, he notes, Oil and gas workers and mining workers, manufacturing workers, make an average $40 per hour.

The public/private disparity in job-related benefits is much larger than the mere wage difference. More than 86 percent of government workers are covered by a registered pension plan compared with just 23 percent of private-sector workers. Government workers are much less likely to lose their jobs. They have longer paid vacations and take an average of five more days off per year for personal reasons than private-sector workers. Moreover, they typically retire more than two years earlier, most likely thanks to their generous pensions.

PSAC was determined to increase that public/private compensation disparity by wresting wage increases of 4.5 percent in each of the next three years. Even that wasnt enough for the CRA workers, who demanded 20.5 percent more over three years plus a one-time adjustment of another 8 percent, for a total of over 30 percent. Presumably this enormous increase, aptly described as unprecedented and crazy, was intended to compensate them for taxing their brains pushing the keys on an almost fully automated tax return system.

No wonder Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre observed during a recent Question Period that, Its one thing to increase the size and cost of the public serviceand another thing to be faced with a massive strike by public servantsbut it is an especially incredible achievement of incompetence to do both of those at the same time.

PSACs excessive demands would normally be tempered by the possibility of back-to-work legislation most recently used in 2021 but the NDPs support of PSACs goals reduced the chances of that to virtually nil. Passing back-to-work legislation with the support of Poilievres Conservatives, though technically feasible, was unthinkable for it would have ended the Liberals de facto coalition deal with the NDP. That put the Trudeau government between the proverbial rock and a hard place: either leave government services that people count on shut down or agree to a settlement that adds many more billions to already perilously high deficit spending.

In the end, the unions demands were met for the 120,000 Treasury Board workers, but dressed up in slightly different clothes. Rather than receiving the demanded 13.5 percent increase over three years, PSAC settled for a nominal 11.5 percent over four years, but retroactive to 2021 and with a 0.5 percent special adjustment added for 2023. The unions website shows a total wage increase of 12.6 percent compounded, with 10.1 percent coming immediately. This is not only higher than what the federal government originally offered but higher than the Public Interest Commission recommended.

Thats not all. According to the unions triumphant press release issued on Monday, PSAC members will also receive a pensionable $2,500 one-time lump sum payment that represents an additional 3.7 percent of salary for the average PSAC member. Moreover, the union also gained new protection against contracting-out with a provision designed to protect public service jobs and reduce contracting out in the federal public service. Federal workers will also be paid to attend training in diversity, equity and inclusion, i.e., radical left-wing ideology. And Indigenous federal employees will get paid time off to go hunting. Its true PSAC is bragging about all of it. On Thursday, the CRA workers tentatively settled for the same deal, considerably less than their original demand, but still a large increase.

Its hard to comprehend how the settlement could have been worse, both for taxpayers and in how it increases the already-dangerous disparity between public and private-sector workers. As government workers try to justify their excessive wage demands, the rest struggle with the rising cost of groceries and other necessities. These are the same private-sector workers whose taxes pay the cost of the public service. But it has become quite clear that PSAC workers and union bosses just dont care. This is a shamefully selfish attitude that tears at the fabric of our nation.

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Incredible Achievement of Incompetence: How the Liberals ... - C2C Journal