Exactly a year ago (Feb 14), I wrote a blog about the Federal government’s plans to expand its own operations outside of Ottawa. This was proposed as a way to ‘spread around’ government work to areas of the country that really need the economic growth. It sounded reasonable – after all – the Federal government is by far the largest employer in Canada. We want our large corporations to ‘spread it around’ but not the government.
Anyway, the new guys have a different view:
Treasury Board President John Baird says one of his top priorities is to stop federal government jobs leaking out of the city to other regions.
Mr. Baird told the Citizen this week that he had “huge concerns” about the Liberal practice of relocating jobs to court favour and win votes. He promised, much to the delight of city politicians and union leaders, to try to reverse the trend and preserve jobs in the region.
….then-public works minister Scott Brison talked openly about moving more jobs out of Ottawa because the national capital region has no special claim on government jobs. He acknowledged at the time that one possible candidate, the Gatineau-based Translation Bureau, could move to a new home in Moncton, N.B., with about 1,000 jobs.
1,000 federal government jobs. Average salary of $45,000. Best benefit and pension plan in the country. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Maybe Scott Brison would make a good PM after all.
Second thoughts?