Budget Cuts Must be Transparent

The Conservatives must be held accountable to avoid ideologically driven cuts.

In January, I posted a blog entry with my advice to the current government on expenditure restraint.

During the final year or so of the Paul Martin government, I chaired the Cabinet Expenditure Review Committee, which found nearly $11 billion in savings over a five-year period. This is similar to the targets the current government has set for itself over the next few years.

The 2005 Expenditure Review Committee’s report, tabled alongside the 2005 budget, was designed to provide Parliament, and Canadians, with a complete picture of the planned cuts and efficiencies. We were proud of our efforts and pleased that all our savings in the public service were achieved through attrition.

However, in this regard, the current government is not off to a promising start.

While campaigning this past spring, the Conservatives projected that, if elected, they would save $11 billion over the next four years. However, they had not booked those savings into the March 2011 budget. We still don’t know any of the details of the government’s plans, despite Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s mid-campaign assertion that there had been numerous meetings of the Treasury Board over the previous year.

It’s fine to set a target, but accounting for the savings before they are found is not prudent fiscal management.

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After the last federal election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper put the fox in charge of the hen house when he appointed Tony Clement as the president of the Treasury Board, which put him in charge of the Strategic and Operating Review. Clement and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird were rebuked by the auditor general for spending $50 million from the Border Infrastructure Fund in Clements’ own riding without any paperwork.

So, what advice do I have for the president of the Treasury Board as he begins the task of advising the current government on ways to control spending?

First, the public service needs to know the government is committed to this task, and it needs support from the top.

It also helps to have outside advice. I was incredibly fortunate to be aided by our former chief statistician, Munir Sheikh, during our expenditure review process. You might remember him from his time in the spotlight last year when he stepped down from his post after the announcement that Canada’s long-form census would be made voluntary. I have no doubt about the quality of our Treasury Board officials, but a voice from outside the department can help shake the institutional inertia that sometimes prevents the discovery of new efficiencies.

Any potential cuts must be examined with fairness, keeping in mind gender and regional concerns. Federal cuts must not affect the most vulnerable. Efforts must be made to avoid the public service’s natural tendency to cut jobs in regions other than Ottawa.

What we have seen so far from this government is concerning. Cuts to settlement services or to national-gallery curators are both ideologically and fiscally wrong. Attacking the vulnerable or the arts is not right, and there simply aren’t enough federally employed curators to balance the budget.

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Are the Tory cuts to arts funding ideologically driven? Read more about the impact they've had on Toronto's SummerWork's festival here.

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When it comes to user fees, the government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. Clement told the public service the government would consider new or increased user fees. The next day, he told the House of Commons that it wouldn’t. Various Reports on Plans and Priorities indicate the government is, in fact, considering increasing user fees. Instead, the government should consider getting some outside help, and should focus on finding larger efficiencies – such as tendering the F-35 contract.

Finally, Clement and Defence Minister Peter MacKay need to pay attention to Ottawa’s bloated National Defence Headquarters. This was highlighted as a problem when I was defence minister in 2003, and I’m sure Canadian Forces members will not disagree with my assessment.

Overall, my concern is that these cuts will not be transparent – that they will be ideological, target the most vulnerable, and involve stealthy new taxation. For instance, the government’s Reports on Plans and Priorities outline 39 new user fees that the government is either raising or considering raising between this year and 2013/14.

If the Conservatives want us to believe otherwise, they are going to have to be far more transparent about their plans.

Photo courtesy of Reuters