OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he will shrink the federal public service and wants to find ways to monitor bureaucrats’ productivity, because “work isn’t getting done”.
In an interview with a Radio-Canada radio station in Trois-Rivières, Que., Poilievre said the federal public service has grown by 110,000 workers under the Trudeau Liberals but has failed to deliver better services to Canadians.
“We… need fewer bureaucrats. There are way too many bureaucrats in the federal public service,” he said in French, Tuesday. “I’m going to reduce the size of the bureaucracy and the state.”
When asked if he would sign an order like U.S. President Donald Trump did ordering federal workers back to the office five days a week Poilievre did not say yes.
“The place of work is not important to me; it’s about the result. I believe there needs to be proof that the work is done,” Poilievre told interviewer Marie-Claude Julien.
Federal employees have been fighting the Liberal government’s attempts to order them back to the office part-time after the COVID pandemic ended. His answer was noteworthy because Poilievre — whose suburban Carleton riding in Ottawa contains a significant number of federal public servants — has so far declined to say what he would do with the federal government’s return to office mandate.
Surveys of employees ordered by both the federal government and public service unions have consistently shown very high support among bureaucrats for remote work. Most federal public servants have recently been required to work from the office three days per week, and four days for executives.
Asked how a Conservative government would measure whether work was being done, Poilievre mentioned “clear tasks” for the public service and monitoring to ensure work is completed.
“Right now, I see that the work isn’t getting done in the federal government. We must put in place methods to ensure the work is done,” he said.
Poilievre’s spokespeople did not respond to National Post questions Tuesday asking for more detail about the methods.
Poilievre also said during the interview that he is the only party leader who can deal with the new U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, and effectively and argued for a “Canada first” strategy.
“Obviously, you have to be ready for everything because the signals change from one minute to the next” from a Trump government, he said.
He added that a Conservative government would not pull out of the World Health Organization, as Trump has ordered the U.S. to do.
Poilievre took a swipe at Liberal leadership hopefuls Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney, saying they couldn’t stand up to Trump. He said Freeland was “very, very weak” when she was foreign affairs minister negotiating with the Trump administration during its first mandate. Poilievre said Carney is “even weaker.”
During her leadership campaign launch on Sunday, Freeland accused Poilievre of being “weak” and ready to bow down and sell Canada out to the U.S.
“He will never stand up to Donald Trump,” Freeland said about Poilievre. “He can’t even stand up to (Alberta Premier) Danielle Smith,” who has been arguing that oil export taxes and other retaliatory measures are not the right approach to tariff threats from Trump.
Poilievre on Tuesday issued a statement saying Canada needed to use retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. as he called on the prime minister to end his prorogation of Parliament to prepare the response.
National Post
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