Public service braces for hardest hit in years

It's been about 15 years since cutbacks and freezes seriously affected the federal public service, worrying thousands in Ottawa who made up the city's largest source of employment at that time.

Soon it may be deja vu all over again for today's 75,000 public service workers in Ottawa-Gatineau, who heard in the Throne Speech Thursday that there will be wage freezes and operational budget cuts as the Conservatives work to bring down their $53.7 billion deficit in future years.

Although the feds say they will save about $7 billion in five years using these measures, public sector unions are worrying about lost jobs and productivity as spending freezes go into effect.

Dan Boudria -- a member of the Jean Chretien cabinet who oversaw the last bout of layoffs under the Liberals in the 1990s -- says not to worry, as the last time it wasn't all that tramautic in the end.

"The way it was administered, there were more people applying for the cashouts than there were positions you wanted to remove from the system."

A safe haven no more?

Ottawa was seen as a haven by many companies during the recession of 2008-09 due to its stable base of employment: the public service. The city's government workers continued to buy products and spend on services despite shrinking budgets surrounding sister economies in the federal capital, like high tech.

Points out the Conference Board of Canada's Alan Acland, the public service takes up 25 per cent of Ottawa's total economic activity.

"As well," he adds, "one in five workers in Ottawa are employees of the federal government. Therefore, limiting growth or having no growth in that sector will have a big impact on the bottom line."

Yet the public service of the new millennium is different than it was a decade and a half ago. An aging boomer workforce within government ranks means most of the experience is centred in people near retirement age.

Says Boudria, the worry is asking these people to retire will hurt the productivity of the public service as experience leaves, forcing younger and less prepared workers to pick up the slack.

"What we should be concerned about is are we going to have a brain drain within the Public Service and on top of that, a self-inflicted brain drain if the government tries to put people out to pasture. We should be thinking of golden handcuffs. Not golden handshakes."

Services could be reduced with workforce

It wouldn't just be departments that are affected.

For those waiting on the phone to find out more about their pension, or standing in line to get a passport, changes will be clear to most people, says John Gordon, head of the Public Service Alliance -- the largest government workers' union.

"How are they going to be affected?" he asks.

"How (will) the ordinary citizen (feel) in some community that is going to have some service taken away from them, that they rely on?"

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Norman Fetterley