The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, April 30, 2012 at 10:56 AM - 0 Comments

The Federal Tobacco Control Strategy is being cut, trade consulates will be closed, a coalition of organizations that deal with homelessness in Montreal won’t receive funding, neither will six groups studying women’s health, seafood inspection is being moved, regional development auditors are being eliminated, economists at Statistics Canada will have to compete for their jobs and StatsCan will start surveying less. David Pugliese wonders why Defence Research and Development Canada is being cut.

Kevin Page puts the short-term situation in perspective.

Ottawa’s ongoing planned restraint and 6.9 per cent cut in departmental spending will reduce its share of the economy from 7.3 per cent in 2010-11 to 5.5 per cent in 2016-17. That will have a direct impact on the economy, Page’s report stresses. It projects the spending restraints and cutbacks will reduce economic output by 0.3 per cent this year, climbing to 0.88 per cent in 2014.

Canada’s economy, subsequently, will grow by only 1.6 per cent in 2013, eight tenths of a point less than forecast by the Bank of Canada and the private sector consensus. On the jobs front, restraint will result in about 18,000 fewer jobs this year than had there been no restraint, climbing to 108,000 fewer jobs in 2015. Most of the losses are due to Ottawa’s actions — including a reduction of 43,000 stemming directly from March’s spending reductions — although provincial restraint is also a factor. Unemployment, currently at 7.2 per cent, will climb to 7.9 per cent in 2013, the report predicts.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 12:33 PM - 0 Comments

Mike De Souza tallies the cuts at Environment Canada.

About $4 million in funding for response to oil spills or other environmental emergencies is being cut as part of a shift toward a “nationally co-ordinated” model that would focus on providing advice from a central location. Meantime, the monitoring of water pollution will “be made more efficient,” along with a reduction in “the overall number of monitoring stations,” for upper atmospheric ozone.

Thomas Duck, an atmospheric scientist from Dalhousie University, suggested the government has no evidence to support its plan. ”The observational network was put together very carefully by experts over many years,” said Duck. “This is reckless destruction of important scientific capacity that is needed to protect the health and safety of Canadians.”

Oil spill monitoring in British Columbia will also be cut, news of which drew an enlightening response from Peter Kent’s office.

The federal government has sought to downplay concerns about the changes. “This will not impact Canadians or the environment,” said a statement from Environment Minister Peter Kent’s office this week. ”These employees were not cleaning up spills. They were providing information about environmentally sensitive land and species at risk.”

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 16, 2012 at 12:07 PM - 0 Comments

Last week, Environment Canada declared 60 scientists and researchers to be surplus.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will apparently eliminate about 200 jobs that were originally added after the listeriosis outbreak in 2008.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 21, 2011 at 4:43 PM - 9 Comments

The government is eliminating 42 jobs with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

The Department of Fisheries will have its budget cut by $56.8 million.

And Veterans Affairs will be cutting somewhere between 500 and 800 jobs.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 14, 2011 at 6:35 PM - 18 Comments

Veterans Affairs is planning to trim its budget by $226 million.

Environment Canada has cancelled a $547,000 per year agreement with the Canadian Environmental Network.

And a subscription to a leading journal on criminology and justice policy has not been renewed.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 10:48 AM - 4 Comments

The Defence Department is planning to cut 250 jobs. Treasury Board will eliminate 84 jobs.

The latter cuts are apparently part of the 2010 strategic review that Paul repeatedly tried to get the government to explain earlier this year.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 3:53 PM - 18 Comments

Among various cuts at Environment Canada, the government is apparently about to eliminate an ozone monitoring program.

The British journal Nature says scientists and research institutes around the world have been informally told the Canadian network will be shut down as early as this winter, putting an end to continuous ozone measurements that go back 45 years.

“People are gobsmacked by this decision,” Thomas Duck, an atmospheric researcher at Dalhousie University, said in an interview with Postmedia News. He and his international colleagues say they’ve been told the network and a related data archive will be closed down as part of the Harper government’s deep cuts at Environment Canada, where hundreds of jobs are being are eliminated.

See previously here, here, here, here and here.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:00 AM - 17 Comments

Environment Canada is due to shed somewhere between 300 and 700 jobs.

He said the department was eliminating 300 positions, rather than the more than 700 positions cited by the unions. Attrition will cover many of the losses, while others affected will get help to transition to new jobs.

“While difficult, this decision will allow our government to continue to invest in clear air and a healthier environment for Canadians,” Morris said, adding that the department has no fewer employees than when the Tories took office in 2006.

The list of those affected includes two biologists, seven chemists, 45 computer scientists, 37 engineers, 19 meteorologists and 92 physical scientists.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 12:39 PM - 3 Comments

Bill Curry finds more than two dozen jobs eliminated at Industry Canada.

But the timing of the news is being questioned given that many of the cuts stem from restraint plans launched more than a year ago – not the government cuts promised in the 2011 budget. “People didn’t know that these plans were in place, of course, until after the government was elected, so I find that whole thing rather distasteful,” said Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. “People knew what was going to happen, but they saved announcements until after the election.”

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 3:54 PM - 11 Comments

Bill Curry reports on cuts at Public Works.

Public Works managers informed their employees Monday the department will shed about 700 jobs over the coming three years, a move one union leader says will include the elimination of 92 auditors. The cuts to auditing staff at Public Works come just as the department is in the midst of overseeing a $35-billion wave of military purchases – including new ships and icebreakers – that carries political implications as Canada’s regions battle over the contracts.

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 10:23 AM - 9 Comments

Chris Cobb finds a 20% cut to the budget of the National Research Council.

Although the cuts at NRC are “significant,” added Corbett, the issue is less about numbers and more about expertise. “If you have a rocket scientist going out the door, you can’t replace that person with an insect scientist,” he said. “It’s a pretty specialized field and that’s the part the government doesn’t appear to understand.

“The government is putting its fiscal policy ahead of everything and ordering all the science-based departments and agencies to cut,” he said. “And they are having a hell of a time doing it. On one hand they are trying to deliver the programs they are mandated and legislated to do, but on the other hand they are having to make some serious choices. It looks like one essential program will live at the expense of another.”

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 3:03 PM - 33 Comments

The hunt for the government’s mysterious cuts—as initiated by our Paul Wells—continues. Bill Curry finds $45-million taken from the Green Infrastructure Fund. Meanwhile, Tim Naumetz reviews the main estimates.

Almost all of the government’s security and public safety programs are increasing either modestly or substantially, including a 21 per cent hike in spending for the Correctional Service to $2.98-billion. The Canada Border Services Agency is receiving a 14 per cent increase, to $1.84-billion, and the Office of the Correctional Investigator, responsible for hearing complaints from offenders, is going up by 21 per cent, to $4.3-million.

But spending by the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness is being reduced by 5.9 per cent to $414.6-million … The National Research Council will have its spending cut by 7.8 per cent to $690,836,000. Spending by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is set to drop by 10 per cent to $118,264,000 … The Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission is targeted for a 20 per-cent reduction in its spending, to $4.5-million from $4.7-million. Among the other agencies where cuts are planned, the Public Health Agency of Canada is set to have its spending cut by 8.2 per cent to $622-million.