If the B.C. Liberals have a larger strategy behind the referendum, evidence of it was on the front page of the Sun a few days ago:
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Given the placement and graphics, this was a story that had been in preparation. And fingerprints of the source was, on closer look, pretty evident:
The report, commissioned by the B.C. government and leaked by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is a review of public sector compensation and suggests the province should give its new local government auditor general powers to review and rein in wages.
I’m sure the B.C. government was shocked to find its report had been ‘leaked’ to the Sun. Such sloppy control over sensitive documents! Looks more like coordination of the Premier’s office, the CTF and the editorial office of the Sun.
This may be part of a larger strategy to target not just municipal employees but, more significantly, municipal and regional government. The provincial government, I expect, will be emphasizing ‘out of control’ spending at the local level more and more – and what better timing to highlight the numbers than at the start of the municipal election cycle.
I’d expect the theme might be picked up by some newcomers in the municipal race too. But it’s hard to know how much it will resonate in an unamalgamated city. Perhaps a lot, given the perceived disconnect between public and private sectors with respect to wages and benefits, and the sensitivity of property taxpayers to fund such increases.
But how does this connect to the referendum, now expected to be held by mail-in ballot sometime in March?*
If the Premier’s agenda is to limit the tax room of local government while avoiding any contamination of new or increased taxes to fund more transit in the Metro Vancouver area, the referendum, if it fails, would do the job – without the Province being seen to oppose transit expansion.
“Too bad, local leaders, that you weren’t able to convince Metro voters to support tax increases for transit,” one can hear the provincial Liberals say. “That also means we won’t have to be at the table with a third of the capital dollars to make the projects viable. If you want more funding, look to your own property taxes, not to us. But, by the way, they’re too high as well. Maybe you should consider cutting costs, wages and services first.”
Sweet.
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* If the referendum is to be held no later than the end of March, that means the investment package, the funding and the question have to be agreed on within the next month and a half. Elections BC, it’s reported, needs five months to prepare. So that leaves less than 50 days to prepare everything else.
I would expect the provincial government to sue the CTF for breach of contract for leaking that document. Surely they can’t allow this precedent to be set.
Cough.
Remember that municipalities budget “in reverse”.
They don’t determine revenues and then budget for the amount of revenue they expect to receive.
They establish their budget – read: wishlist
– and then adjust the property tax mill rate to raise the amount of revenue required.
It’s no wonder that spending is less stringently controlled at the municipal level.
Plus the civil servants salaries & benefits are frequently well above comparable private sector jobs & benefits, c/o CUPE.
Perhaps I should run for Vancouver council, on the NPA ticket. Far too much overspending there. We shall see. Maybe in 4 years. Not this fall.
I’m not at all surprised that municipal employees are faring better on the wage front than those on the Provincial payroll. It would be terribly difficult to do worse than Provincial public sector workers whose increases, when they get any, are below the rate of inflation.
When you look at the increases that the Premier, cabinet and staff have gotten in the last decade it’s hard to believe their treatment of public sector workers is anything but a vindictive attack for daring to unionize.
David, the amount paid to several of Vancouver’s public servants for administering an area of just 114 square kilometres and just over 600,000 people is shocking even when compared to Federal public servants dealing with 9,984,670 square km and 35 million people.
Increases are still far too high if salaries are 20-30% above where they ought to be, when counting pensions, benefits, hours worked and the low low risk of layoffs. They even got a raise in 2008-2009 when many folks lost their job or if they kept it got a 20-35% reduction, say at GM or AirCanada due to brutal international competition. Not so in the municipal, provincial or federal civil servant regime. Raise raise raise is the core phrase.
A broad salary review is in order across MetroVan !
There is no need to review…Just cut…Worked with government at every level through my IT consulting career and the level of over-staffing, redundancy and lack of productivity is shocking. Then you add to that lack of vision and purpose and you get what you have now…I would say the only places worse than government are the quasi-government agencies such as WorkSafeBC, BC Ferries and of course universities. Cuts in order of 50% of staff levels would be a good start.
Including consultants?
Thomas there have been many of civil service cuts at the Federal level in the Tories most recent term, and there were many provincially when Gordon Campbell came to power. However, I’m not aware of any significant cuts to Vancouver’s civil servants during all of that time. It’s the one level of government that keeps on growing and enjoying wage increases even as Vancouverites’ incomes stagnate.
Indeed.
Hence the often rather harsh stance by the provincial Liberals when the cities or municipalities ask for more money for roads , subways, buses or other subsidies. Hence the referendum on transportation.