OTTAWA – Growth of the federal public service has slowed to almost nothing, even though serious budget cutting has yet to begin.
But if history is a guide, senior officials need to keep hiring – selectively – if they want to keep the bureaucracy alive and well, the Public Service Commission said in its annual report.
“To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, targeted recruitment should continue,” the report said. “The focus must be to ensure that the right people, with the right skills and competencies, are in place to deliver results.”
The report found that between March 2010 and March 2011, the bureaucracy grew by just 0.3 per cent, ending a period of steady increases that averaged four per cent a year.
Deep cuts are yet to be felt. Government departments have been told to prepare scenarios for cutting five or 10 per cent of their costs, with firm plans to be in place for the next budget. The aim is eventually to trim spending by $4 billion a year.
Federal ministers have said that pink slips will be minimal, because retirements are expected to rise.
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But officials at the commission say they have seen no sign of that yet. They said retirements from the federal bureaucracy fell sharply last year.
And while older people hang on to their jobs during a time of fiscal uncertainty, there is little hiring of young people, the commission’s 2010-2011 report found.
Ottawa hired just 6,590 people under 35 last year, down 27.7 per cent from a year earlier. For the first time in a decade, the total number of public servants under the age of 35 dropped, the report said.
Overall, hiring – especially of permanent employees – fell sharply.
Now, as departments dig even deeper to meet government-imposed targets for spending reductions, senior officials will have a tricky job to make sure the work still gets done properly, said Maria Barrados, commission president.
“It’s going to be a huge challenge in managing all these changes,” she told reporters.
The commission surveyed public service cuts in the 1990s, when many government programs deteriorated. Back then, layoffs meant major changes in the age structure and skills of the federal bureaucracy, leading to shortages in key occupations.
Barrados warned that managers need to take extra care to abide by the commission’s hiring rules of merit and transparency, even as people line up for coveted government positions.
“We are heading into a situation where there are going to be fewer jobs,” she said. “I hope we continue to hire, but there will be fewer jobs. And there is a continuing high interest in jobs.
“I think when you have this equation of fewer jobs and continuing high interest, I think you have continued risk.”
The slowing of job growth was evident across departments, with Human Resources, Environment Canada and Canadian Heritage shedding the most workers.
Some departments expanded, however, with sizable increases at Correctional Service Canada – where new jails and new tough-on-crime legislation have added to the workload – and at Public Works and Statistics Canada, where extra people were needed for the census.
The commission found that most hiring in the civil service is done without political interference, although it is investigating some complaints at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
The commission is an independent body reporting to Parliament. It’s mandate is to ensure the integrity and impartiality of the work done by federal civil servants.
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