Ottawa is refusing to reveal how thousands of federal jobs will be cut, with Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali telling MPs the government must keep the information under wraps to avoid upsetting public servants whose positions may be on the chopping block.Blacklock's Reporter says Ali told the Commons government operations committee the Liberals would not disclose details of their plan to trim the public service by 10%, even though cabinet has publicly announced the reduction. “We are dealing with public service employees’ livelihoods,” he said, adding it would be “unreasonable” to brief anyone outside government before workers themselves are notified. “This is a real issue that impacts those public service employees and their families.”Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to find $60 billion in savings, telling a Montréal business crowd earlier this month that cutting the ballooning federal workforce — now at 445,000 according to the Budget Office — is central to that effort..Opposition MPs say Ali is keeping Canadians in the dark and violating Parliament’s own transparency law. The Parliament Of Canada Act guarantees the Budget Office “free and timely access” to federal spending data, including payroll cuts. Analysts have warned Ali may be breaking that obligation by refusing to turn over information.“You are asking parliamentarians to vote on these estimates while denying parliamentarians the information they are entitled to,” said Conservative MP Pat Kelly, who repeatedly pressed Ali to explain why the Parliamentary Budget Officer was being stonewalled. Ali responded that details still weren’t finalized and insisted the government must speak to employees first..Kelly pushed back, asking whether cabinet itself had been briefed. Ali said “details were not finalized,” and refused to say whether the information even exists. When Kelly asked whether he would comply with the Budget Officer’s request by Friday, Ali accused him of “playing politics with the lives of public service employees.”Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Helene Gaudreau voiced frustration with the evasive answers, saying taxpayers deserve clarity. “Things are not going well,” she said. “I was expecting answers. I hear slogans on transparency.”
