Liberals commit to cutting bill on consultants, adverts

Annual cuts of $221 million planned for external consultants and contractors, government advertising, and public servant travel.

Thestar.com
March 27, 2016
By Alex Boutilier

The Liberals are trying to rein in Ottawa’s ballooning bill on consultants and contractors, committing to cut $170 million annually from the $8-billion tab.

Tucked away in budget documents released this week was a line committing to cut $221 million a year in professional services, government advertising and public servants’ travel.

“The government has committed to eliminate poorly targeted and inefficient programs, wasteful spending, and ineffective and obsolete government initiatives,” the documents read.

Officials told the Star that $11 million is planned to be cut from travel expenses, while $40 million a year will be axed from government advertising. The bulk of the cuts, about $170 million, will target the federal government’s increasing dependence on external contractors and consultants.

Internal documents obtained by the Star, however, show the Liberals have a long way to go to bring spending on external services back in line.

Documents prepared for Treasury Board President Scott Brison show that spending on professional services, such as engineering, legal services and temporary help has grown from $7.24 billion in 2005-06 to more than $10.46 billion in 2013-14.

Of that total, $8.03 billion was spent on private companies to provide public services. The remainder was spent on government departments contracting services from other departments, such as legal advice from the Department of Justice.

Ottawa’s goal is to bring external consultant spending back down to 2005-06 levels, the heavily censored documents state - a cut of $1.58 billion from 2014 totals. If the Liberals stay on the course to cut $170 million per year, that goal won’t be reached until 2026-27.

“The reason we have the $221-million figure is it’s a significant figure but it’s actually very realistic,” Brison told the Star on Thursday.

“We need to do more work in order to present and legitimately defend a larger figure. We’re comfortable with the $221-million figure at this time.”

Brison said the cuts to external service provision were arrived at through discussions with departments, rather than simply imposing a number on them. Those discussions will continue, Brison said, and he didn’t want to prejudge the outcome.

Chris Aylward, the executive vice-president at the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the union will be monitoring closely the government’s efforts to scale back contracting out.

“We said all along, our members, those jobs don’t need to be contracted out, our members can do them very effectively and very efficiently,” Aylward said Thursday.

The government has also promised to scale back government advertising, which came in at $68.7 million in 2014-15. This year, the Liberals have set out to trim $40 million from the government’s overall advertising budget.

Brison said that more savings may come through tightening the rules around what counts as legitimate government advertising. The previous Conservative government’s ubiquitous Economic Action Plan signs and television ads came under criticism from both the Liberals and the opposition New Democrats as being overly partisan rather than informative.

“The rules that determine what is legitimate government advertising that genuinely benefits Canadians and what is propaganda that benefits the governing party, we have to draw a clearer line on that,” Brison said.

“It is quite possible that in strengthening governance around government advertising, we also may find that we save money.”