B.C. Premier David Eby holds a news conference at the legislature in Victoria, on Nov. 13.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
The British Columbia government will freeze hiring for the civil service, a month before contract talks with its unions begin and at a time when Premier David Eby’s new government is facing a record-breaking $9-billion deficit.
Just weeks ago, Mr. Eby was given a rock-star welcome at the BC Federation of Labour convention, where he credited the province’s unions for his party’s razor-thin electoral victory. But the public sector consumes a little more than half the entire provincial budget and private-sector employers are unhappy with the rate of growth within the government.
“Effective immediately, we are implementing a temporary hiring pause for external positions, except for frontline roles essential to delivering critical services and programs,” Shannon Salter, the head of the public service, wrote in a message to civil servants on Wednesday.
“This decision is a proactive step to ensure we are making the best use of our resources in a constrained fiscal situation, while continuing to meet the needs of the communities we serve.”
The announcement came as a surprise to Paul Finch, president of the B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU), which represents the majority of unionized civil service workers. He is waiting for answers from government including whether or not the freeze will apply to contract employees and non-union management.
“We’re very keen to understand what those terms are,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
The freeze in B.C. only covers the direct civil service, not the broader public sector, including Crown corporations and health and education sectors. However, almost all of B.C.’s public sector labour contracts expire in the coming months, and the tenor of bargaining is usually set by the biggest unions such as the BCGEU.
In late November, Mr. Eby thanked union members in the BC Fed audience. “It was your members that were out there hustling on the doorsteps throughout the campaign,” he told the convention. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Eby was grilled by members of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce about the fact that the number of public administration jobs in the province has increased three times faster than the economy.
The premier defended public sector hiring of teachers and nurses, but hinted at administrative cuts as his government prepares the next budget, which will be delivered in February.
“There is absolutely work for us to do around the administration of government services and ensuring that that is right-sized for the work that’s actually out there,” he said. He pointed to the government’s promised review of its health authorities that will ensure, he said, “that the administration doesn’t suck up the resources that are intended for the frontline supports for people.”
Mr. Finch said the suggestion that the province’s civil service is oversized is wrong: The province is in line with the national average. But, he added, the ranks of non-union management who make up one quarter of the civil service have grown at twice the rate of union jobs since 2010.
There are about 34,000 BCGEU members in the civil service, and he said they will be looking for significant wage increases in the round of bargaining that begins in January.
“Our members are falling behind due to the high cost of living, and that is going to be a prime focus in front of us,” he said. “We do not want to see a situation where the government attempts to balance the budget on the backs of our members.”
A one-per-cent increase in public sector wages adds roughly $400-million to the provincial budget.
The federal government has similarly indicated its plans for spending restraint: Treasury Board President Anita Anand sent a letter to its departments last month asking them to identify internal savings by Nov. 20 as part of a continuing review of federal spending. Federal public-sector unions warn that will lead to job and service cuts.