Don't expect details on cuts in federal budget

The Conservative government’s detailed plans to slash federal spending may not be revealed until months after the much-anticipated budget expected in the first week of April, CBC News has learned.

Government sources say the budget will provide a broad overview of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s fiscal blueprint for getting the country’s books out of the red over the next four years.

Sources say the budget will contain some important details for average Canadians.

For instance, the government will use the budget to clear up much of the confusion over what exactly it has planned for the Old Age Security program it claims is not sustainable with Canada’s aging population.

But the precise details of exactly which government agencies and services will be axed may not be publicly announced until months after Flaherty has presented his budget in Parliament.

Federal officials say those details will probably be made public as part of the government’s routine departmental spending estimates to be tabled in the Commons after the budget, possibly as late as June.

All of which is bound to create increased tension and anxiety among the nation’s more than 300,000 federal public servants already on edge over the prospect of tens of thousands of jobs winding up on the chopping block.

The Harper government announced last year that it was requiring federal departments and agencies to come up with plans to cut their respective operating budgets by five per cent to yield total savings of $4 billion a year.

But as CBC reported recently, the government has since become more aggressive in its budget targets, resulting in departmental cuts likely to be much deeper than originally planned, with an overall target of almost $8 billion in savings.

One source says special review panels of cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats have so far analyzed over 600 departmental proposals for everything from minor cuts to eliminating entire agencies.

While the government may not make its spending-reduction plans public until later this spring, it is unlikely public servants will be left in the dark for months after the budget.

Classified plans

CBC News has obtained classified documents setting out the details of how one of the largest departments in government is handling its own reorganization, including the resulting job cuts.

In the lead-up to the budget, it sets out a schedule for extensive planning and training sessions for government executives, and preliminary information sessions for ordinary public servants.

The "workforce adjustment" programs — including specific information on which public service jobs will be affected — are scheduled to start the day after the budget is presented in Parliament.

The documents were provided to CBC News on condition the department is not identified.

Sources say the government’s plan is a mix of fiscal and political considerations.

For instance, the timing of the budget in the first week of April means it cannot become a political football for the New Democrats during their leadership convention in March.

At the same time, the early April release also means opposition attacks on the budget in the Commons won’t last more than a few days before Parliament adjourns for a two-week Easter break.

For months, government insiders had been expecting the budget to be tabled in the first week of March.

But sources say the government has delayed putting the final stamp on its fiscal plans for Canada until the economic crisis in Greece stabilizes.

The government is afraid another major economic upheaval in Europe could drag North America back into recession, forcing Flaherty to rewrite his budget or, as was the case in 2008, junk it altogether.

For the same reasons, the government is not rushing to unveil its precise spending-reduction plans in the budget.

Delaying the official release of those targets even for a few months into the spring gives the government some latitude to adjust its plans if Europe is suddenly plunged into a new economic crisis.