The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) heavily criticized the demands made by The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), saying federal employees are “out of touch” and are asking too much while Canadians are struggling to make ends meet.
“Canadians don’t feel sorry for the privileged bureaucrats on strike who took pay raises during the pandemic and never worry about losing their job,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the CTF. “These bureaucrats are living a privileged life and now they want to take billions more from taxpayers who are worried about making their mortgage payments and struggling to afford gas and groceries.”
PSAC demanded up to 47% compensation increases over three years, according to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which would cost taxpayers $9.3 billion.
312,825 federal employees received a pay raise during the pandemic, according to the CTF. 74,925 public employees made more than $100,000 per year which is up from 43,424 since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office.
“Taxpayers paid for hundreds of thousands of pay raises, hundreds of millions in bonuses and tens of thousands of new employees over the last few years and now bureaucrats are demanding billions more,” Terrazzano said. “Enough is enough. The government must reject PSAC’s unaffordable, unsustainable and out-of-touch demands.”
The average pay for a full-time federal employee is $125,300 including pension and benefits, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
After beginning their strike at midnight Wednesday, PSAC has detailed services that will be affected including income tax and benefit returns from the Canada Revenue Agency.
“Benefits to Canada’s most vulnerable will be unaffected, including payments for income security Canadians rely on to pay their bills,” said Jeffrey Vallis, a representative of PSAC told True North. “Our workers who ensure public safety will continue to work, including the Coast Guard, firefighters, and critical government operations.”
“Some emergency visa and passport applications will be processed based on extreme need.”
Services such as the Canadian Transport Agency, Veterans Affairs Canada, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, and Employment Insurance are considered essential services but may see some delays.
Canadians can expect disruptions such as issuing of licenses, certifications, new benefit requests, and increased wait times when accessing federal services during the strike.
