Time to put cap on public salaries

Wow -some common sense at last "Here's what doesn't make sense:

You don't go into deficit to give pay hikes to civil servants. That simply builds in more and enduring deficits. Now is the time to hold the line on obscene civil service salaries. There are very few people who are actually worth more than $250,000 on the public dime.

Cap public sector pay. Put an end to bonuses. You think they'll quit for the private sector? Not a chance. It's cold out here. " PR

Time to put cap on public salaries
Posted By CHRISTINA BLIZZARD

It was a rare glimpse of humanity you don't often get in rough-and-tumble scrums.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan made a frank admission about just how close to home the fallout from the economic meltdown has hit.

Duncan, whose Windsor riding has been devastated by the havoc in the auto sector, has clearly seen the pain close to home.

Asked if he was daunted about the tough road ahead, he had this to say: "Frankly the challenges I face as finance minister aren't nearly as challenging as families who lose a job," Duncan said.

"I have a little house on a little cul-de-sac of 20 houses and I can tell you that even among my neighbours and friends and families what has gone on is deeply troubling."

It was refreshing to have a minister in a "this too will pass" government admit the unemployed are more than just numbers in a pie chart.

Duncan will deliver his budget on March 26.

It will be pivotal -- a document that could well define his government. Revenues are down and the demands on the public purse have never been higher. As the unemployment rolls soar, welfare costs will skyrocket.

Having wrestled public sector unions to the ceiling in salary negotiations, Duncan's going to have to come up with billions of dollars to pay for those pay hikes.

What worries me is the tacit permission we have given politicians to rack up big deficits.

I suspect Premier Dalton McGuinty is also concerned, and that's what prompted him to give a flurry of interviews where he talked about "stimulus

In tough economic times it makes sense to build public infrastructure. But you should build only what you need.

We need new roads, new sewers and an improved electricity grid.

When the Toronto Stock Exchange can't function because of a power outage, it's time to fix those hydro transformers.

It makes sense to build new rail lines, so people outside the downtown core have access to good mass transit.

Here's what doesn't make sense:

You don't go into deficit to give pay hikes to civil servants. That simply builds in more and enduring deficits. Now is the time to hold the line on obscene civil service salaries. There are very few people who are actually worth more than $250,000 on the public dime.

Cap public sector pay. Put an end to bonuses. You think they'll quit for the private sector? Not a chance. It's cold out here.

Don't give contracts to cronies. We need a nonpartisan arbiter with integrity to police the cash as it goes out the door.

If you're going to bail out the auto sector, union members are going to have to make concessions.

The unemployed, people who are doing twice the work for half the salary, people who are just hanging on by their fingertips, will not buy in to a budget that bails out fat cat car execs and well-paid auto workers. Ditto for public sector and auto worker pensions. Their gold-plated defined benefit plans have tanked? Too bad.

You can't expect taxpayers who have no pensions to bail out people who do.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to kick-start their domestic auto sectors, some European countries are offering big cash bonuses to taxpayers to buy new cars.

That makes sense. It would get workers back on the line and give hard-pressed workers a break.

I'll bet on budget day Duncan will be watching for the drapes to twitch around his street. My guess is his neighbours will be his toughest critics.