The strike and wage demands by Canada’s already overpaid public-service workers adds insult to the injury most Canadians will suffer during tax time. Taxes are high and will get higher if civil servants get the double-digit wage increase they’re demanding.

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Diane Francis: Trudeau spends tax dollars like a spoiled child — and still can't keep the greedy unions happy Back to video

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Taxpayers are being held hostage by the public-sector unions, despite the fact that, in 2021, public-sector employees, at all levels of government, made 31.3 per cent more, on average, than workers in the private sector, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute. They also tend to receive more benefits, better pension plans and enjoy greater job security. They have become a burden to the nation.

Since Justin Trudeau became prime minister, compensation paid to federal employees increased 52 per cent, from $38 billion in 2015 to $58 billion in 2021.

Federal employment job growth is three times greater than in the private sector and, at the same time, management fees paid to consultants have skyrocketed from $10.4 billion when the Liberals took office, to an estimated $17.7 billion in 2022, a jump of nearly 60 per cent.

(By contrast, the compensation paid to federal employees during the final seven years of the Harper government, from 2009 to 2015, grew by only seven per cent and overall employment actually fell.)

Trudeau’s reckless track record led Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre this week to wryly tweet: “It takes a special type of incompetence to spend 50% more on the bureaucracy and still end up with the biggest public service strike in 40 years. Only Trudeau could have pulled this off.”

Financial Post contributor Jack Mintz recently pointed out the areas where the Liberals have squandered tax dollars. “The ‘no pipelines’ Impact Assessment Agency (employment up 89 per cent since 2015), Fisheries and Oceans (up 37 per cent) and Parks Canada (up 39 per cent). The Innovation and Sustainable Economic Development department, which hands out corporate welfare, is up 29 per cent,” increased 52 per cent

“The Public Health Agency has doubled in size since 2015, with a 30 per cent increase last year alone. And Women and Gender Equality Canada has quadrupled over the last seven years to 390 employees. It is now almost half the size of the Department of Finance, one of the key central agencies, which is itself up 18 per cent since 2015.”

To cap it all off, on April 1, MPs received their fourth wage hike since COVID hit. This led the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) to circulate a petition objecting to this year’s pay raise of an extra $5,100 for backbench MPs and $10,200 for Trudeau.

“A backbencher currently collects a $189,500 salary. Ministers take home $279,900. Trudeau gets $379,000 from taxpayers. Do you think they should take thousands more from taxpayers when many Canadians are struggling to fill the fridge?” asked the CTF.

The unions seek a wage increase of 13.5 per cent over three years, which is in line with inflation. But there are greedier factions.

Earlier this year, the operational services group, which includes tradespeople with a range of skills, asked for wage and non-wage benefits that will cost 47 per cent more over three years and is “far beyond what is reasonable,” according to a government compensation panel. Canada Revenue Agency employees asked for an “unprecedented” pay raise of more than 30 per cent over three years.

Such demands are unacceptable. Striking workers must return to work or be fired. Automatic pay raises should be made illegal. Benefits should be rolled back. Salaries should never exceed what is paid in the private sector for equivalent jobs.

A hiring freeze must be imposed, early retirements offered to downsize the bureaucracy and consultants should be banned. Under current management, Canada is headed for the ditch and taxes will rise, foreign investment will shrivel and the brain drain will gain speed.

Canada deserves better than to be governed by a prime minister who was born into a wealthy family, attended private school and became a professional politician like his father. He spends tax dollars like a spoiled child with a big allowance — and always will.

Financial Post