Ottawa plans to eliminate about 1,000 federal executive positions over the next two years as the Carney government looks to shrink the public service and rein in spending, according to a Treasury Board memo.About 500 executive positions are expected to disappear in each of the next two years after the ranks of senior federal managers grew substantially over the past decade.“The government has committed to returning the public service to a more sustainable size,” said the Treasury Board memo Reductions In The Public Service.“As the size of the public service adjusts, so too must its leadership,” it said.The memo said approximately “1,000 executive positions over the next two years” will be eliminated but did not identify which departments or agencies will bear the cuts.Blacklock's Reporter said federal records show the number of “executive group” managers increased from 7,181 to 10,077 over the past decade, while their annual payroll nearly doubled from $1 billion to $1.9 billion.The figures were disclosed in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons after Conservative MP Scot Davidson asked for the number of federal employees working at the executive level or higher.The cost of severance and career transition packages for departing executives remains unknown.“Career transition agreements are negotiated between executives and deputy heads based on a variety of factors, including age and year of service,” said Treasury Board.“They also include both cash and non-cash elements. Therefore it is not possible to precisely predict the total cost of these agreements.”Some federal departments and agencies recorded particularly large increases in their executive ranks.The Department of Infrastructure increased its executive payroll by 241%, growing from 32 executives to 109. RCMP civilian executive staffing increased 215%, while Shared Services Canada, the federal government's IT department, recorded an increase of 134%..Western Economic Diversification Canada increased its executive ranks by 104%, while the Canadian Human Rights Commission recorded a 100% increase.Few federal organizations reduced their executive ranks during the same period.Veterans Affairs Canada went from 99 executives to 98, while the Federal Courts Administration Service reduced its executive complement from 20 to 19.Individual executive salaries are not publicly disclosed, though federal “executive group” salaries range from $134,827 to $255,607 annually depending on seniority.Senior executives can also qualify for additional benefits, including government vehicles and chauffeurs.Executive bonuses average $17,869 annually.“On average, executives in core public administration received performance pay equal to 10.8% of their salary,” according to Treasury Board.The planned reductions follow Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne's warning last September that Ottawa would face difficult spending decisions as the government attempts to become more efficient.“Will there be tough choices to make? Definitely,” Champagne told reporters. “Is the nation ready? I would say yes.”Champagne said Canadians who have been forced to tighten household budgets should expect the federal government to do the same.“Canadians have been tightening their belt for quite some time,” he said. “You know, times have been challenging for many families across the nation, so it’s only normal that from a government perspective we do the same, that we look at how we provide services to Canadians, how we can be more efficient.”
