We Know What We’re Fighting For…

…and that would be Autonomy! one federal civil service job at a time!

Tom Hedderson, Minister of Sustaining the Holy Fight Against Federalism, said today:

“Federal presence in Newfoundland and Labrador is an issue our government is committed to fighting for so this province can get the kind of funding other provinces have received.”

And what “kind of funding” would that be? For starters, in most other provinces, the “kind” is less than what NL gets. The following figures are from fiscal year 2006/07:

Federal payroll ($000) and Payroll per capita ($)

           Payroll   Per-capita

Canada $ 25,150,751   $ 769.99
NL        $ 430,849   $ 845.79
PEI       $ 208,062  $1,502.11
NS      $ 1,504,707  $1,610.75
NB        $ 861,778  $1,150.53
QC      $ 4,962,549   $ 648.02
ON     $ 10,922,817   $ 860.42
MB        $ 970,076   $ 823.46
SK        $ 579,023   $ 587.21
AB      $ 1,694,545   $ 499.24
BC      $ 2,497,597   $ 578.44

Adjusted for population, only the three Maritime provinces, and, at least in that year, by a nose, Ontario, have a larger federal civil service monetary presence than NL does.

Furthermore – and this bears repeating ad nauseam because people are convinced that the truth is otherise – NL has a larger share of the federal government workforce, and of the federal government payroll, than of the national population. Really. Honest.

Percentage share of…

      FedGov jobs  FedGov payroll   Canadian population

NL      1.9%            1.7%           1.6%
PEI     1.0%            0.8%           0.4%
NS      6.1%            6.0%           2.9%
NB      3.8%            3.4%           2.3%
QC     20.8%           19.7%          23.4%
ON     41.2%           43.4%          38.9%
MB      4.3%            3.9%           3.6%
SK      2.5%            2.3%           3.0%
AB      7.2%            6.7%          10.4%
BC      9.8%            9.9%          13.2%

Does Hedderson really want Newfoundland and Labrador to have “the kind of funding other provinces have received”?

If so, in order for all provinces to have, adjusted for population, a perfectly equal share of federal government jobs and payroll — which is the only real way any province could have “the kind of funding other provinces have received” — then $38.6-million in last year’s federal government payroll, and nearly 1,200 federal civil service jobs, would have to have been transferred out of Newfoundland and Labrador to the federally under-staffed provinces, Quebec and the West.

(Population data is from StatsCan Table 051-0005; federal government employment data is from Table 183-0002; time period considered is fiscal year 2006-07.)