National Post editorial board: Boom time for the public service
Posted: April 02, 2009, 8:00 AM by NP Editor
Canada’s private sector is racked with job losses — nearly 300,000 between November, 2008, and February, 2009, alone, with projections of as many as 600,000 in total between September, 2008 and June of this year. Gross domestic product could shrink over 5% during the first half of the year, before making a small rebound in the second. Homes are in danger of foreclosure, consumer confidence is stumbling and businesses are shuttering. At present, Canada is on pace for a 22% rise in personal bankruptcies this year. Real wages are stagnant or even falling.
Meanwhile, over in the public sector, things could hardly be rosier. According to Statistics Canada, the ranks of Canada’s civil servants swelled by 96,000 members (2.9%) in just the final three months of 2008, and “total public sector wages and salaries rose by 4.3%” last year, almost two percentage points above private-sector compensation.
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