The austerity measures announced as part of Prime Minister Carney’s upcoming fall budget should be deeply concerning to everyone in Canada.

Don’t be fooled by the Carney government’s rhetoric about cost-cutting and balancing budgets. Cut through the noise and you get to the hard, unavoidable truth – austerity inevitably means sweeping cuts to public services that jeopardize Canada’s future.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne confirmed “adjustments” are coming to Canada’s public service to create a “leaner and more efficient government” following the expenditure review that will see major departments trim their budgets by 15 per cent.

The deadline for departments to submit their spending reduction plans to Treasury Board was August 28.

Already, more than 10,000 public service jobs have been cut in the past year, with more reductions expected in the months ahead.

Slashing public services to cut costs is a lazy, reckless and short-sighted agenda that we’ve seen backfire time and time again.

Austerity makes life unaffordable for everyday people struggling to make ends meet.

A better path forward

Carney’s government has a choice – it can be a forward-looking, model employer focused on creating good jobs to strengthen our economy and build a resilient Canada, or it can continue to rely on old-fashioned, ineffective austerity measures that hurt workers and families.

There’s a better way, and we have been working with Carney’s government to provide innovative solutions to find the savings they’re looking for. After several meetings with Ministers and senior staff in Carney’s government, PSAC offered practical recommendations in our expenditure review submission to save money while strengthening our economy and protecting public services.

PSAC’s recommendations

PSAC’s recommendations focus on increasing revenue by making corporations pay their fair share of taxes, cutting costs by reducing the number of overpaid consultants, and savings through remote work for federal public service workers.

But to achieve these goals, we need a government that is truly willing to work with workers and unions – not around them.