‘We’re not going to pay people who are not sick’: Harper says sick leave changes will strengthen public service

Nationalpost.com
Sept. 14, 2015
By Mark Kennedy

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper says public servants in the national capital should not be worried if his party gets re-elected to govern in the Oct. 19 election.

However, he warned that reforms to sick leave and disability benefits will be designed to strengthen the system so it helps people who are “actually ill.”

As well, he thinks most public servants “respond positively” to the Tories’ efforts to run the federal government “efficiently.”

Harper made the comments Sunday in response to a question at a campaign news conference held at a private manufacturing factory, where he warned supporters that Canadians could lose their jobs if either the Liberals or New Democrats gain power and raise taxes.

Harper was asked about how, as prime minister, he is the “boss” of the region’s single largest employer and that federal public servants are worried about their jobs, benefits and pensions.

“They really should not be worried,” said Harper.

“I think as you see in the last few years, obviously we’ve made sure that our operations are more efficient. That’s an ongoing job. Any management is responsible for making sure that its operation remains efficient.”

In the 2012 budget, the Conservative government slashed federal spending by billions of dollars and eliminated about 20,000 jobs.

“But where we have reduced numbers we have done so largely by attrition and made sure that people are treated very generously and fairly,” said Harper.

Currently, sick leave is the big issue at the ongoing round of collective bargaining with the unions that has slowed down since the federal election campaign began in early August.

Thirteen of the 17 federal unions recently filed a motion seeking an injunction to stop the government from invoking the new powers it gave itself in C-59, the budget omnibus bill, to unilaterally impose a new sick-leave agreement.

Unions have filed constitutional challenges against the bill that allows the Conservatives to override the Public Service Labour Relations Act and impose a new deal whenever it wants.

They argue the changes violate the right to free and collective bargaining as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Conservatives want to scrap the existing sick leave regime and replace it with a new short-term disability plan.

The government proposes reducing the number of annual sick days a year from 15 to six and abolish much of the 15 million days of banked unused sick leave.

The Conservatives’ legislation leaves the timing for a deal wide open but Treasury Board President Tony Clement has said he wants a deal before the Oct. 19 election.

“We are committed to a strong package of employee benefits, but one that is in line with what exists in the private sector - not out of line with that,” Harper said Sunday.

“We’re reforming sick leave and disability benefits to make sure that sick leave and disability benefits are there, and in fact, the system is stronger for people who are actually ill and need help.

“But we’re not going to pay people who are not sick, sick leave.”

Harper received a strong round of cheers and applause from supporters at his campaign event when he delivered this blunt warning.

“Look, this is the responsible thing to do,” he said.

Harper said his party has done “very well” in the National Capital Region in recent years.

“In fact, it’s been one of our stronger parts of Ontario.

“And part of the reason for that is that the vast majority of public servants, they join the public service because they want to contribute to the country. They want to be productive. They want to contribute.

“They expect as taxpayers themselves that things will operate effectively and efficiently and that big proportion of the public service responds very positively to what we are doing.”

Harper’s remarks were in stark contrast to what former prime minister Jean Chretien told a crowd of Liberal supporters just a day earlier in Ottawa-Vanier.

In his speech Saturday at candidate Mauril Belanger’s office, Chretien spoke strongly about how things have gone sour for the federal bureaucracy and diplomats since the Conservatives took power in 2006.

He said Canadian ambassadors abroad don’t have the freedom they should have to do their jobs.

“The ambassadors are well-educated with a lot of experience. If they have to talk to the chamber of commerce in one town in the country where they are, they have to send their speech to a kid in Ottawa in the PMO to approve it. Come on. It’s unacceptable.”

Chretien, who first came to the House of Commons in the early 1960s, said he learned a long time ago that bureaucrats “are not partisan. They are there to do a good job.

“For me, if you are succeeding as a minister, they succeed. If they fail, you fail, too. So they are your partners.

“It’s why we were enjoying good relations and it was working. And the mood was, in the bureaucracy, when we were there, much better than it is today.”

Earlier this month, Ottawa Centre NDP candidate Paul Dewar said repairing federal politicians’ relations with public servants would be an NDP government’s top local priority.

When asked what is the most-neglected federal project in the capital, Dewar replied: “It is the deterioration in the relation between public servants and the government.”

“I think that’s something that really has undermined our city and its reputation, frankly. It’s no longer something that’s just in the bubble. It’s across the country, frankly.”