Ontario’s Greek Tragedy? – Not Quite, but…
I don’t expect we will see the kind of riots around Queens Park on Wednesday afternoon that erupted outside the Greek Parliament following the passage of austerity measures, but the Public Service sector of Ontario is about to start feeling the fear and anger of its Greek counterparts when former T.D Bank Chief Economist Don Drummond shows up to present a financial road map for the Liberal minority government. .
Drummond was asked by the McGuinty government to step back and out of the political bubble for the big picture view of Provincial spending. and to recommend a way out of debt and record deficit. Guess who is going to get Drummond’s fiscal finger? yup, the bloated public service sector. The Greek austerity package cut 15,000 public sector jobs out of the mix and ten times that number will be cut over the next 3 years. There is no comparison to make of course between the financial status of Greece and Ontario, but there is a parallel in that the governments of both have turned to non elected economic advisors to do the work they were elected to do. It’s no doubt too late to save Greece from economic implosion no matter how much is trimmed, but its not too late for Ontario law makers to listen.
Keep in mind, that Canada weathered the financial storms of 09 /10 better than most countries primarily because the banking sector was so sound and savvy in comparison to others. T.D weathered the storm better than most banks and Drummond had a lot to do with that as Vice President and Chief Economist. T.D. CEO Ed Clark credited Drummond for creating a ” think tank in a bank “. Drummond also spent 23 years as an assistant deputy minister in the federal department of finance, so he has seen both sides of this fiscal equation.
The Premier would be well advised to implement Drummond’s blueprint which will be designed to not only keep Ontario from tipping towards the Greek tragedy but ( knowing Drummond) will actually point the province towards prosperity. Will it hurt ? Yes. Will the Public Service take the brunt of cuts ? probably, but it won’t warrant the kind rioting we saw in Greece.