Fair shares

"Our position continues to be that this province does not have its fair share of Federal Government decision makers and employees based in this province," said the Honourable Tom Hedderson, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Perhaps Minister Hedderson would deign to define "fair share". What is a "fair share" of "Federal Government decision makers and employees"?

In his answer, Minister Hedderson might note that while 1.2% of all Canadians are federal civil servants, 1.4% of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are. Or, flipping the axes around, with 1.6% of the Canadian population, Newfoundland and Labrador has 1.9% of the federal civil service.

What would be a "fair share"?

Tom? Danny? Bill Rowe? Anyone?

And, while we're at it: would the provincial government be so kind as to publish a geographical breakdown of "Provincial Government decision makers and employees"?

Are Gander or Wabush getting their "fair share", whatever that is?

Surely, Open and Accountable Williams Government would be amenable to publishing that information.


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Not-quite-instant update:

Tom Hedderson also says:

During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a 25 per cent decrease in federal jobs in this province, compared to the approximate five per cent national decrease.

Bzzt. Wrong. During the 1980s, the federal civil service grew. Nationally, between January 1981, and May 1991, federal civil service employment in Canada increased by 24%. May 1991 is when the federal civil service size peaked both nationally (at 457,160), and in Newfoundland and Labrador (10,930).

During that same period, roughly "the 1980s", federal civil service employment in Newfoundland and Labrador grew by 34% — that is, by ten full percentage points more than the national average!

Federal civil service presence in Newfoundland and Labrador reached its recent (since 1981) historic low in January 2002. Since that time, the federal civil service presence has grown by 13%... which is a larger growth rate than that of the national civil service employment figure over the same period, 12%.

Hedderson also uses a classic example of How to Lie With Statistics:

The number of people employed by the federal government in this province has fallen substantially, from approximately 10,250 in 1993 to 6,970 in 2004.

He selects 1993, in which federal civil service presence in Newfoundland and Labrador reached its highest annual average, and compares it to 2004, the second-lowest. (2002 beats 2004 by 12 annualized average federal civil servants.)

2004. Four years ago. Which conveniently discounts the 370 federal positions which the province gained over the next two years (full figures for 2007 are not yet available), to say nothing of discounting the much larger-than-average civil service growth that the province enjoyed before Program Review in the 1990s.

Hedderson is entitled to his own opinions. He is not, however, entitled to his own facts.