Mr. Speaker, on October 22, I asked the former solicitor general to back away from any decision to implement the so-called alternate service delivery at the RCMP depot division training academy in Regina, in my riding.
Alternate service delivery or ASD, as it is called, is the latest bureaucratic buzzword for privatization, a bad policy of right wingers who do not believe government has or ought to have any role in providing public services. We have lots of experience with privatization and right wingers in my province in Saskatchewan, lots of fiascos that I wish the federal government would try to learn from.
Privatization is synonymous with lost jobs, higher costs, low wages and reduced services. ASD or privatization has been tried in various federal government departments like CFB Goose Bay.
Here is what happens. The government fires you and then if you are one of the lucky 55% a subcontractor offers you your job back at about half the pay. Privatization: jobs are lost, costs go up to the taxpayers, wages do down and public services are reduced.
ASD is being invoked as a potential money saver by this right wing Liberal government. The Liberals believe they need to save money at the RCMP because the force's budget is in a management mess. Things are so bad that when treasury board realized last October that the RCMP had apparently overspent its budget, treasury board would not release any more funds without undertaking a $1 million audit of the operation of the entire force by management consultants KPMG.
How bad a budget management problem do you need to justify spending $1 million on an audit? The RCMP has a budget of $1.2 billion. By October it was overbudget by $11 million, mainly in B.C. and Alberta. Ten million was transferred to B.C. from other divisions of the force, cadet training was frozen at the depot in Regina and other serious cuts in policing were implemented, leaving Canadians dangerously under protected.
Now they are looking around for scapegoats and they have seized on the civilian workers at the depot as prime targets. For the record, civilian services at the depot account for $1.9 million of the division's $40 million budget, or 4.75% of the salaries are for the support services by the public servants in that depot.
I met with many of these workers who are concerned for their jobs and their families. They are also concerned about the RCMP and the credibility the force has. They provide a dedicated and cost effective service to the depot division and the RCMP, a quality service that would be lost if plans for privatization proceed.
These employees have already participated in one study of privatization, a study that proved privatization cost the force more money than if they had just kept the status quo.
There is plenty of evidence that the high management and administrative costs of the RCMP are the real culprit. The rights and privileges of the officer class also come at a very high price. If I were working at KPMG that is certainly where I would be looking first.
But in a rush to jump the gun on any other recommendations that KPMG might suggest, a last minute report from depot division management to old division headquarters in Ottawa is recommending that privatization be pushed ahead instead. The report was not done by outside consultants but by area RCMP management. It was based on out of date and incorrect information and in spite of claims that they consulted, the so-called consultants never actually consulted the affected workers. It is strange but it is true.
I wrote to the President of the Treasury Board and the solicitor general last week based on further meetings with my constituents. I have asked them to hit the pause button on the drive to privatize and to make sure they receive and read the KPMG report before making any fundamental decisions like privatizing the civilian depot employees in Regina.
This is no laughing matter for the civilian depot workers or their families and it is no laughing matter for me or the RCMP. I hope the parliamentary secretary can report to me today that there will be no new moves to privatize those civilian services and that any decisions about the depot will wait for the KPMG report.