Quebec to ‘ tighten its belt’

Will eliminate 1,150 jobs from civil service and cut perks, bonuses to senior staff

Saddled with a serious image problem because of multiple fee increases and cutbacks, the Couillard government moved Tuesday to tighten its own belt.

Emerging after a marathon sixhour cabinet meeting in which the government’s difficulty at selling its austerity agenda was front and centre, Treasury Board President Martin Coiteux read the riot act: the Quebec government will indeed do more with less.

First up, he announced he is slapping a two per cent reduction target on government staffing.

The move is expected to elimi- nate 1,150 jobs out of the government payroll of 60,000 bureaucrats in the public sector by 2016. Already targeted by other measures, the health and education sectors are not affected in this fresh round of bean- counting.

Estimated savings total about $ 92 million, officials said later.

There was more. Coiteux said he’s imposing new restrictions on government travel and training junkets, outside consulting and advertising campaigns will be slashed and he’s calling in unused cabinet ministers’ discretionary funds before they have a chance to spend them.

Senior mandarins and political staff will not get scheduled perks and performance bonuses ( a $ 42- million saving). Neither will the heads of Crown corporations who have to come up with staff reductions to match the government’s own plan.

“The state must tighten its belt,” Coiteux told reporters at a news conference. “The government machine will do its part. This has nothing to do with ideology. Putting our heads in the sand is not an option.”

Coiteux’s announcement comes as public and media pressure grows on the government to show it is doing more itself to wrestle the province’s deficit to the ground at the same time as it asks Quebecers to pay more for things like daycare and cope with hydro rate increases.

Satisfaction in the government has slipped for the first time since the election.

Coiteux dressed up the bad news in a “renovate and modernize” speech but the Quebec common front, representing the province’s main public- sector unions, swiftly pounced.

“Mr. Coiteux wants to renovate his house by pulling out the foundation of the Quebec model,” the union statement said. “The population did not vote for this.”

Union demonstrations are already scheduled for this Saturday in Quebec and Montreal.

Austerity turmoil later dominated question period, with Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault infuriating the normally cool- cat Premier Philippe Couillard when he called him “twofaced” and a liar for doing things today that he never revealed in the election campaign.

“I will not lower myself to his level,” Couillard shot back. “He wants me to roll in the mud like him.

“His ( Legault) lack of courage reveals he does not have the necessary qualities to lead Quebec.

Legault was forced to retract the remark, but not before speaker Jacques Chagnon twice ordered the CAQ house leader to “sit down,” or be ejected.

But part of Coiteux’s pitch and future savings imply the co- operation of the province’s powerful public- sector labour unions, which recently rolled up to the door requesting a 4.5 per cent wage increase.

Quebec had already announced a hiring freeze until March 2016, and with 2,000 bureaucrats retiring each year, some of the reductions will happen by attrition.

The previous government, however, signed on to a one per cent wage increase that kicks in on March 31, 2015, and Coiteux does not have the money ( a one per cent increase costs the public treasury $ 390 million).

“Meeting that bill at the same time as respecting the zero deficit target in 2015- 16 will require Quebec to find other payroll savings in order to generate $ 689 million in additional savings,” Coiteux said, without elaborating what other cuts he has in mind.

But he sent them a message. They need to become part of the solution.

“Blue- sky thinking no longer suffices,” Coiteux said.

Meeting that bill at the same time as respecting the zero deficit target in 2015- 16 will require Quebec to find another payroll savings.