Are schools and hospitals fat? Are veterans’ pensions gravy?

So what have we cut already?

• 32% of Veterans Affairs staff supporting disability, death and financial benefits for veterans.

• One-fifth of Canadian food inspector positions.

• One-third of Statistics Canada’s data analysts.

• One-quarter of positions in the department that handles EI claims.

• And in other news, Canada Revenue Agency is slated to kill 3,000 positions in a division specializing in offshore tax avoidance at the same time as it ramps up what increasingly looks to be politically motivated audits of progressive and environmental charities.

And those are cuts at the federal level. In British Columbia, Liberals have managed the civil service with a similar style of hack, whack and smack. From the time they took office in 2001, the economy has expanded by half, in constant dollars. Yet the professional service, provider of much needed expertise, has declined by a quarter. The combined effect means the public has roughly half the professional capability it once had to manage the business affairs of government.

More at Press Progress:

How to respond to your grumpy Conservative uncle’s tax rants at Christmas dinner