CFRA Question of the Day?

On their web page, CFRA runs their Sound Off poll that asks major questions of the day and then crafts the answers so that no matter what you wish to answer you have to follow their script.  Today's questions is:

"Should public sector workers in Ontario - be told to take "Dalton Days"? These would be days off - without pay - similar to "Rae Days" in ‘93 when all provincial employees took 12 days of unpaid leave as a cost cutting measure. The Ont. gov't is running at a $20B per year deficit, salaries represent 80% of operating costs."

Here is the answers that they offer:

1. Yes. All provincial & municipal managers, employees and politicians
2. This is unfair to the employees
3. Yes. But only "non-essential" workers
4. Other

I have two major problems with this "poll".

The first is that it not in fact a poll.  If you right click on the poll and then click on "properties" you will find an interesting hidden comment.  The "poll" is listed as an "ad" sponsored by the Ottawa Taxpayer Advocacy Group.  It is an ad, not a poll.  I wonder why CFRA keeps that fact secret?  The Ottawa TAG, as they call themselves, appears to be a small group of wide-eyed future councilors, MPPs and MPs.  These are the people that recently referred to city taxes as "legal extortion" and then challenged Alex Cullen and Marianne Wilkinson to a verbal duel at city hall.  The evening's discourse was anything but civil.  I wonder how much the Ottawa TAG paid for the ad/poll to CFRA?  And where Ottawa TAG gets that kind of funding?


My second major problem is that none of the answers offered goes to the heart of the problem.  The problem is not Dalton Day's.  It is not how much the city/province would save by having public servants take a few days off without pay.  The problem is that we have allowed city and provincial managers to grow the size of the bureaucracy with no regard for cost or what these new people will be doing.  Why has the city added so many new workers at the same time as they ramp up more numerous contracts to outside firms?  The problem is not the size of paychecks but rather the number of them and the work that gets done for them.

It is time for the city and the province, and for that matter the federal government, to take a harsh look internally and figure out what works and does not work.  Look for body count (FTE) savings and start doing the job you were elected or selected to do.  Dalton Days is a crass slap at a government that deserves criticism but it is not the long term solution to the problem.