Canadians think the best way to balance the federal books is on the backs of public servants, according to a new national opinion poll.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears to be on the right path then, having just delivered a budget that promises wage freezes and $8-billion in cuts to public-sector spending over the next five years. It has also pledged to get rid of the $56-billion deficit in that time.
"The default position for a lot of Canadians is to believe that there is always fat that can be trimmed in the public service," says Nik Nanos, author of the new Nanos-Policy Options poll. "It shows that [the public service] is the easiest target. ... [Canadians are saying] we would like others to shoulder the burden for managing the deficit as opposed to taking it on individually."
The poll asked which strategy Canadians felt was most effective to help balance the budget. Thirty-six per cent of the respondents felt that freezing government wages was the best approach compared to 3.4 per cent who felt that increasing personal taxes was the way to go. In addition, 20.5 per cent said that government and program spending should be cut, compared to 7.9 per cent who believe the GST should be increased.
The poll of 1,000 Canadians was conducted between March 6 and March 12. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
"Here we are again," says John Gordon, the president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada that represents 165,000 workers.
"Every time the government gets into [trouble] they kind of ramp up the rhetoric and the Canadian public starts to believe them ..." he said.
In general terms, he added, his members' wages run behind those in comparable positions in the private sector.
His workers are an easy target, he said, because the government fails to explain what it means to get rid of public servants - that services provided to the public would be affected.
For example, Mr. Gordon points to the work done by federal public servants during the H1N1 crisis to get vaccines in place and deal with the pandemic.
"It's easy to broad brush it and say they should be freezing wages, which they have already done and cutting public services, which they are already doing. ..." he said, but added that the public has to ask itself what services it would like to see gone.
"I bet you'll get a different picture," he says.
The poll also asked what Canadians thought of the government's handling of its economic policies. It found that 35 per cent of respondents felt the government was doing a good or very good job, compared to 30 per cent who felt it was doing a bad or very bad job. The same number said the government was doing neither a good nor a bad job.
And 30.7 per cent of Canadians said that the government's deficit was acceptable.
Mr. Nanos says this budget is a no-risk document for the Harper government and one aimed at government survival.
"It was not too ambitious for the opposition parties to criticize ... not really much to punch at, so it makes it easier to survive," said Mr. Nanos.
He also believes this budget will mean an election either this spring or fall.
"[This year's budget] puts the government in a position where it can potentially fight an election before the tough medicine has to be doled out," he said.
