FIRST READING: As PSAC escalates strike, Canadians say government workers paid just fine

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TOP STORY

As federal public servants begin blocking roads and ports in a bid to get the government’s attention, a new survey is showing that most Canadians think government workers, in general, are paid just fine.

A new Angus Reid Institute survey finds that 64 per cent of Canadians either think government workers are overpaid (28 per cent) or “fairly compensated” (36 per cent).

Just 17 per cent thought they deserved a pay raise.

Unsurprisingly, the poll showed a pretty definitive partisan split: 33 per cent of NDP voters thought civil servants were underpaid, against just eight per cent of Conservatives.

This adds to an earlier Angus Reid poll finding that while Canadians broadly supported some of the aims of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) strike, they were less sympathetic when it came to the union’s demand for a yearly 4.5 per cent pay raise for three years.

While 65 per cent of respondents supported PSAC demands related to better overtime pay, only 48 per cent gave a thumbs up to the wage increase requested by the union.

The average federal government employee does indeed make well beyond the Canadian average, but this is not necessarily representative of the approximately 155,000 employees in the current walkout.

According to recent figures from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the average annual compensation for a full-time employee of the Canadian government is $125,300. This figure includes all costs in addition to salary, such as health benefits and pension contributions.

There are about 50,000 Canada Revenue Agency employees among the strikers, and the same PBO report found that the average CRA salary is about $76,874.

It’s harder to get a rough estimate of pay among the other 100,000 strikers, as they comprise units that are known to be at the lower end of federal payrolls. This includes cleaners and Canada’s last remaining lightkeepers.

However, the Fraser Institute publishes a regular report that compares public sector wages to the private sector by tabulating numbers from the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey.

Their latest count, released just before the start of the PSAC strike, found that the typical government employee is earning 8.5 per cent more as compared to someone performing similar work in the private sector (although the premium drops to 5.5 per cent if the private sector worker is in a union).

The most recent Statistics Canada numbers peg average hourly pay in Canada at $31.96, which works out to $66,476 per year.

PSAC began their walkout on April 19, but after one week of no movement from the federal government they escalated on Wednesday to blockading federal infrastructure, including ports and military bases.

“We shut down the Port of Montreal and downtown boulevards, the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Saint John’s; we blockaded the Treasury Board office in Ottawa and other strategic locations from coast to coast,” wrote PSAC in a Wednesday statement.

On Thursday, the union bussed 500 members to the departures lounge of Toronto Pearson International Airport, prompting airport officials to advise travellers to arrive early to account for anticipated delays caused by the disruptions.

The federal government has refused to budge on PSAC’s wage demands, sticking to their counter-offer of a three per cent raise each year for three years. But an emerging sticking point is the union’s demand that work-from-home measures be encoded into a new collective agreement.

Telecommuting has never previously been a particularly contentious point for Canadian organized labour, but PSAC is reacting to recent federal directives reversing nearly two years of stay-at-home orders.

“I’d rather be working from home” and “Telework Works” were among the signs held by picketers at a Wednesday demonstration on Parliament Hill.

IN OTHER NEWS

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King Charles III’s brother is apparently in Canada. Although it’s received shockingly little press, Prince Edward was in the Toronto area this week, where among other engagements he had an official audience with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FuqeZrdWAAg8NR6.png?quality="90&strip=all&w=576&sig=SrjIXaN8oEjMkyOsvFZwsg 2x" height="1494" loading="lazy" src="https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FuqeZrdWAAg8NR6.png?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=-AgAxsaeQHS-yLyTg186Sw" width="2048"/>
King Charles III’s brother is apparently in Canada. Although it’s received shockingly little press, Prince Edward was in the Toronto area this week, where among other engagements he had an official audience with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.Photo by Office of the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario

Before Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and CBC President Catherine Tait got into a public spat over the issue of the broadcaster’s public funding, Tait had apparently suggested that they meet in person. Letters obtained by the investigative news outlet Blacklock’s Reporter show that Poilievre had only just won the Conservative leadership before Tait sent him a not tremendously polite letter offering to discuss the “implications” of his promise to defund the CBC (the letter also slammed Conservatives for disparaging the network’s report). Poilievre ignored the request, and a few months later Tait accused him of cynically bashing the CBC in order to gin up fundraising dollars.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre started singing in the House of Commons on Wednesday, which is apparently forbidden aside from designated singings of the national anthem. The song was the theme from the 1977 film New York, New York, a cover of which was popularized by Frank Sinatra. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has embarked on a trade mission to New York City, and Poilievre wrote parody lyrics to the song implying that Trudeau’s only accomplishment would be to run up a huge hotel bill. https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/SINGING.png?quality="90&strip=all&w=576&sig=9f_msnc0-VFXUWH7oa3z3A 2x" height="1020" loading="lazy" src="https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/SINGING.png?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=U8J2iv8nZnA9JFmUGpr6hQ" width="1919"/>
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre started singing in the House of Commons on Wednesday, which is apparently forbidden aside from designated singings of the national anthem. The song was the theme from the 1977 film New York, New York, a cover of which was popularized by Frank Sinatra. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has embarked on a trade mission to New York City, and Poilievre wrote parody lyrics to the song implying that Trudeau’s only accomplishment would be to run up a huge hotel bill.Photo by ParlVu

Amid flagging law enforcement recruitment numbers, the Ontario government is dropping a requirement for police candidates to have a post-secondary degree. In the words of Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, “I don’t think bringing an arts degree is necessarily the criteria to go to Ontario Police College and to be a cadet.” On the one hand, it’s not great optics that the government is dropping the qualifications required to become a police officer amid several high-profile examples of Ontario police officers flamboyantly breaking the law.  On the other hand, the Canadian job market has been pretty badly plagued by degree inflation for quite some time.  

This a section of an Access to Information request recently received by National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak. This kind of thing actually happens a lot. Just last year, a Quebecer’s ATIP request regarding government herbicide policy was met with 229 blank pages. It’s not a problem unique to the Trudeau government, but it has continued even after they repeatedly promised to fix it. https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FurizzyaEAAIxMX.png?quality="90&strip=all&w=576&sig=hM_DlvoIHdHVgUnu8BRYRQ 2x" height="1212" loading="lazy" src="https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FurizzyaEAAIxMX.png?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=CwGKlxiIGR6LziEF00mAKQ" width="1072"/>
This a section of an Access to Information request recently received by National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak. This kind of thing actually happens a lot. Just last year, a Quebecer’s ATIP request regarding government herbicide policy was met with 229 blank pages. It’s not a problem unique to the Trudeau government, but it has continued even after they repeatedly promised to fix it.Photo by Twitter/Jamie Sarkonak

And a semi-regular reminder that one of Canada’s most cutthroat, hyper-capitalist investment entities happens to be a pension fund for teachers. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan just shut down its five-person Hong Kong unit with the intention of shifting their operations to the 50-person Singapore unit. The fund has an incredible $250 billion in assets with offices on every continent save Antarctica.

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