Number of civil servants earning over $100,000 has doubled since Conservatives came to powerQuote:
In 2006, when the Conservatives first formed government, there were 19,509 federal public servants earning more than $100,000 a year. In 2010, that number spiked to 42,050.
The new data obtained by the Ottawa Citizen shows that the 'fiscally prudent' Harper Conservatives have actually governed over an unprecedented growth in civil servant salaries.
The Treasury Board has defended the increase as an anomaly, stating the number of employees earning more than $100,000 was far higher in 2010 because the government made a number of retroactive payments to unionized workers for collective bargaining.
But according to the Citizen, the documents show none of the previous years going back to 2004, when similar collective agreements were negotiated, saw such a large jump in the number of high-earners.
Gregory Thomas, Federal and Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says he believes the increase has to do with the government making payouts to some senior staff as part of a long-overdue reform — putting an end to severance payments that were made even when people quit their jobs voluntarily.
Nevertheless, he suggests what's happening in the civil service isn't happening elsewhere.
"Clearly, taxpayers aren't seeing their pay packets surging over the six-figure mark. That's not the reality on the ground," he told Yahoo! Canada News.
"The committee advising the government on retention and compensation is probably saying the same thing: these days, taxpayers don't need to be sweeten the pot to attract top talent. The security of a federal job, with the existing perks and pensions, is more than enough."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-p ... 16478.htmlSo much for fiscal Conservatives...