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Critics see program cuts in PC plan Page 57 of the Tory policy book says that a Williams-led government will "eliminate ineffective programs." It's a small paragraph tucked away in the back of the book, but it's there in black and white. It's an approach that sounds similar to the program review of the mid-1990s under Liberal premier Brian Tobin. A promise to eliminate inefficient programs sounds much like a plan to cut something. Williams says he doesn't know yet if that's what will happen in the end. "I'm sure that 90-odd per cent of the programs in the civil service are very fine programs, maybe even more, maybe all of them are, but we will evaluate them on an individual basis." "If some of them have become obsolete over time, or some of them become inefficient or need refocusing," Williams says, "that's what we hope to do."
The Tory promise to review government programs sends a chill through the civil service, and not just for its vague, veiled threat. Government employees have been through it before, when Tobin promised a "better tomorrow" that included program review." NDP Leader Jack Harris remembers it well. "It's a code for looking at each and every program, one by one, in each department, and deciding whether you keep it, or you scuttle it," Harris says. Tobin's program review was when licence plates were dropped off the front of cars and additional fees were tacked onto government services. It also cost the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary two-officer patrols, and snowplow operators lost a "wing man" who monitored the extension plow on their trucks.
"If they do this, we're certainly going to see more fees, we're going to see less public services, less public servants and we're going to see some kind of governmental saving," he says. "I don't think we can afford it. I don't think we can take it." NAPE president Leo Puddister says the Tories are planning to orchestrate the same chaos on the civil service as Tobin did. "Sure, it's the same thing," he says. "If you're going to cut public services, you're going to have to cut people - and when you cut people, you're going to have to cut programs." Williams is trying to sell himself as the leader who knows how to turn the province, and the economy, around. He promises to bring the business touch that made him a millionaire to government.
Puddister says Williams is in for a rude awakening. He says the Liberals have already mined the public sector of all its nickels and dimes. "He might know business, but we know the public service, and we don't see too many inefficient operations in that work place," he says. "The way we see it, there's not enough people there." Williams has spent much of the campaign having to explain his pledge to trim the civil service through attrition. The blue book says that with 25 per cent of the public service expected to retire within the next four to five years, positions can be cut without any layoffs.
Williams says he has no plans to resurrect Tobin's program review, going through government spending line by line, looking for cuts. "We'll be evaluating programs in departments, but this is not a witch hunt," he says. "Most of the programs and policies in government are probably very good, but we have an obligation, as good managers of the province, to act responsibly on behalf of the people in the province, and that's what we hope to do." Harris believes the public has forgotten the turbulence of Tobin's program review, and the Tories aren't about to remind them. He says the Tories are keeping this campaign more about Danny Williams, the high-profile and successful businessman and lawyer, than the issues. "If Mr. Williams succeeds in keeping the election just about advertising, and just about whatever images he can get on TV each night, and keep away from the core and meat of the debate, then people may not remember," Harris says.
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Conservative
Leader Danny Williams is campaigning on a message of change, but
a promise in his blue book gives a distinct sense of deja vu.
Every
government department experienced change. Harris warns that the
blue book promise to examine government services to ensure value
for money is just program review resurrected.
