Centralization

T'were most humorous to hear St. John's city council candidate Bernard Davis on Thursday, on the air with No Names Please, expounding on his economic development platform.

Yes, yet another variant on Fiscal Autonomy Through Greater Dependence On Ottawa:

We’ve got to lobby the federal government… to bring more offices and stop centralizing everything.

Hilarity!

What, coming from a municipal candidate in the city whose concentrated share of the provincial civil service is 70% of the provincial total — the same 70% which, at the federal level, you would have to combine the 20 largest population centres, including Ottawa-Gatineau, to arrive at.

And what, coming from a municipal candidate in the city which has the fourth- (or fifth- or sixth-*) largest per-capita federal civil service presence among the 25 or 30 major Canadian metropolitan areas.

And what, coming from a municipal candidate in the city whose federal civil service presence, as a share of the province's total federal civil service presence, continues to grow.

"Stop centralizing everything", Bernard?

Be careful what you wish for.


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* Two smaller urban areas, Kingston and Moncton, have recently been elevated to CMA status; either or both of which, having large federal civil service workforces, may demote the larger St. John's CMA in the overall ranking.