XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: mtl.general   
   From: Panca@nyet.ca   
      
   Note the term "higher churn rate" under the Harper government     (^o^)   
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   National Post / Postmedia News | December 10, 2014   
      
   Number of staffers working for PM, cabinet ministers ballooned under Harper   
   government   
      
      
   The Conservative government’s enthusiasm for cutting costs and reducing the   
   size of the public service appears to end at the elevator to the minister’s   
   office.   
      
   Data tabled in the House of Commons on Monday shows the number of political   
   staffers working for cabinet ministers has ballooned under the Tories,   
   up 21 per cent from the last year of Liberal rule.   
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   Paul Martin’s government employed 452 people as “exempt” ministerial   
   aides,   
   advisors and other staff in 2005.  This year, that number has swollen to 549   
   bodies on the public payroll.   
      
   The increase in exempt staffing is even sharper in the Prime Minister’s   
   Office.   
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   In 2005, it took 68 exempt staff to run Martin’s PMO.  This year, Prime   
   Minister Stephen Harper’s command-and-control centre employs 94 people —   
   38 per   
   cent more than Martin’s, according to the figures provided by Treasury Board   
   Secretariat.   
      
   The number of PMO staff was even higher in 2010, when the office counted 109   
   exempt bodies.   
      
   Some of the fatter numbers could be explained by higher turnover rates in   
   certain ministers’ offices and a higher churn rate of staff under the Harper   
   government.   
      
      
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   Part of the overall increase is due to the increases in staffing at the Public   
   Safety Canada (with 13 staffers supporting minister Steven Blaney), the Federal   
   Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (five staff) and the Office of   
   the Co-ordinator Status of Women (three staff).   
      
   The numbers were provided in response to an order paper question from NDP MP   
   Charlie Angus, who asked how many ministerial staff were stationed in each   
   city.   
      
   His question appeared to be an attempt to develop a response to questions about   
   the NDP’s contentious use of House of Commons staff in so-called satellite   
   offices in Montreal and Quebec City.   
      
   The vast majority of ministerial staff work in the National Capital Region, but   
   there are some exceptions for ministries with strong regional interests, such   
   as the three Department of Fisheries and Oceans exempt staff who work from   
   Charlottetown, P.E.I., or the two from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada working   
   out of Regina, Sask.   
      
   Less clear, however, is why four of Canadian Heritage Minister Shelly   
   Glover’s   
   staff members work from Winnipeg, in her home province.   
      
   In an email, Glover’s office said only three ministerial staff are based in   
   Winnipeg did not respond to a request to identify the staff or say why they   
   worked there.   
      
   The response from Treasury Board also shows that, in 2007, then-Foreign   
   Minister Lawrence Cannon had a ministerial staff member working in the far-away   
   land of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)