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Consultants getting billions from Harper Tories

'They're talking about the need to reduce the public service ...at the same time costs are going through the roof.'

Ottawa (7 Dec. 2010) - The Canadian government is lavishing ever more billions of dollars on consultants at the expense of taxpayers and reliable public services.

Last year the Harper government spent $8.2 billion on so-called professional services ranging from architects to lawyers to engineers to management consultants.

Spending on professional services rose 132% between 1998 and 2010 while federal spending on other suppliers increased 61% over the same period.

In the last five years alone, says the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), the cost of outsourcing has ballooned by 80%. The result is greater cost and poorer service for taxpayers, argues PIPSC president Gary Corbett.

"It changes subtly at first, because most taxpayers don't understand the importance of the public service until one day the lights come on and they're paying a lot more or there's some kind of disaster like with Walkerton," Corbett says.

"These services that were once in the domain of the public sector have now been privatized and that's really what's happening here."

Corbett says federal governments - especially the Harper Conservatives - have gradually created what amounts to a parallel public service that is now performing, often at much greater expense, the work that public employees have traditionally performed.

The actions of the politicians in power are totally at odds with its stated intention of providing efficient government, he contends.

"They're talking about the need to reduce the public service, to be efficient in the current economic climate, at the same time costs are going through the roof on these kinds of things like contracting out. It's a philosophical change … just like the corporate agenda."

Professional consultants include lawyers, auditors, writers, procurement experts and information technology personnel.

Meanwhile, many federal pensioners are being rehired on contract to fill some of the highest level public service positions, says PIPSC. This includes jobs as high as assistant deputy minister and the cost is high.

In some settings there are so many consultants on contract that they outnumber full-time employees by a ratio of five to one or more.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE