Community reaction to planned public service job cuts

Thousands of government employees received notices that their jobs have been "affected" by budget cuts this week, including those at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and at the Canada Revenue Agency.

For many in the CBC Community commenting on our stories, this is an important step toward the government's plan to cut budgets, shrink government and lower deficits.

• "This is great news for the majority of us in the private sector who are tired of underwriting a bloated public service that selfishly takes advantage of every sick day, union perq, and strike threat available to them. Enough!" said Mikethespike.
  
  
• "Great move by the Feds. Still, there is a lot more fat that could be trimmed. Keep up the great work Harper," said SUNLOVER.
  
  
• "This is wonderful news. Cut the fat. Now time to cut bloated MP salaries and abolish those ridiculous golden pensions for life on the taxpayer dime," said CashCropFarmer.
  
  
• "Personally, I believe Harper is doing exactly as any strong leader has to do. Tough decisions require tough decision makers, and they cannot worry about popularity polls in so doing," said 300WinMag.
  
  
• "Having worked in the private sector for the past 25 years I can sympathize with these workers and the stress they must be feeling over potential job loss. We in the private sector have been facing that prospect our entire working lives. And at only about 75 per cent of the wage rate, our public counterparts have been enjoying," said SmarterThanUR.

But others in the comments decried the cuts to the public sector and the stereotype of the overpaid government worker.

• "Most of you are talking about federal workers who you know nothing about. I am a federal worker who has worked hard all my life for my money. The federal government has been good to me and my family. I have been given opportunity for advancement. I also worked in the private sector and am in no hurry to ever return. So before you make your remarks about us being lazy, and wasting public money you had better do your homework," said that was bright.
  
  
• "What makes you think these cuts won't affect your lives? Look at the services they are cutting from. These are some of the more important areas for maintaining revenues, transport safety, justice and more. Let's also remember these are your friends and neighbours getting tossed. These people live in your communities and shop at the stores you work in. If you think all public service people are fat cats then you need to take the opportunity to talk to them sometime before they're gone," said 54degrees.
  
  
• "Public sector employees are real people. Public sector jobs are real jobs. You can't say, as our federal government has said time and again, that your focus is the economy and then purposefully cut 19,200 jobs over three years," said joceclam.
  
  
• "Of course the job cuts are announced shortly after the House has recessed despite the continuous, persistent efforts of the Opposition and PBO to get the government to reveal the extent and projected cost savings expected. The government repeatedly stonewalled, equivocated and denied providing this basic information so they could cravenly proceed with their butchery of Canada during the summer recess. What a cowardly spineless bunch!" said Virtuoso.
  
  
• "This is a stressful situation for many people. No one should be happy about the fact that large groups of people might be losing their jobs, whether they are part of the public service or the private sector," said left_wondering.
  
  
• "The cutbacks should be made by getting rid of the Senate and cutting back on the expenses of the high-flying, big-spending PM and Conservative MPs. The Conservatives have always squandered taxpayer monies as in this case taking a record surplus to a record deficit then trying to claw back by firing civil servants. This government is totally out of control," said Grandma47.

Thank you, as always, for following our coverage. Please feel free to comment on or challenge any of these points and continue the conversation below.