Government hires $90,000-a-day 'cuts' consultant firm.

I was kind of surprised when I saw this. I figured his Finance Minister and the rest of his staff who get paid to handle these matters would take care of a task like this.

Source

OTTAWA — The Harper government is paying a high-powered management consultant firm almost $90,000 a day for advice on how to save money.

As previously mentioned, why bother having a full time Finance Minister? Harper and friends tell us about the tough times ahead, and that we will require future cuts in our budget and funding. But we can afford to pay 90 grand per day to make these cuts? Way to go guys.

Deloitte Inc. was hired on Aug. 15 on a $19.8-million contract to advise the federal cabinet and senior officials on finding enough savings to balance the books by 2014.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for balancing the books. But isn't that part of the job describtion Canadians voted him in for? I just can't justify using 20 million dollars of tax payer money to do your job. Seems kind of lazy to me. Sounds like he should have appointed a more functional staff to handle the nation's economy in these uncertain times.

You can check out Deloitte's "About us" page here.

I do admit that they are a reputable firm and may have some extra expertise over our elected officials, but I can't help but get upset over this abusive spending. I will stop short of making bold claims of a conflict of interest since I have not had the chance to research this yet. I will look into it later.

If any members can come up with some connections of a conflict of interest or something similar please feel free to share. All thoughts are welcome.

Peace.

HEY! we're Canadians,we're polite and don't dare complain about our government,like the yanks do south of the border! GET BACK IN LINE AND SAY SORRY!!!

Your right buddy , we have elected these clowns to deal with this within a reasonable frame .

For them to hire some next clowns , is just a spit in the face to tax payers ..


while this circus goes on many canadians are living pay check to pay check thinking about how to pay next months mortage and grocery bills...


it is sad times . but hey canadians "elected" these clowns so i suppose the citizens get what they paid for right?

no one to blame except the voters , so when we see wasteful spending like this , then nobody to blame but our self for letting these criminals in office get away with it

sad.. but true

I'm so sick of Canadian politics.
We elect goons. Plain and simple. Absolutely garbage goons.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


If that 20 million can pinpoint cost cutting measures to the tune of 40 Billion, then I think it was well spent.

Do you honestly believe the the civil servants within the government will readily fork over those savings? I think not.
(btw .. I am one) Nobody in this bureaucracy wants to give an inch to this downsizing.

Now if people wanted to read the entire article they would have noted that there were training teams and accounting teams as well as expert consultants dispatched throughout the government offices. These things cost money and they are not cheap. Whoever says they can do it alone or easily is fooling themselves.

They are paying $20 million to have 2 scenarios shown out.

1) A 5% reduction in expenditures = $13.8 Billion reduction.
2) A 10% reducion in expenditures = $27.6 Billion reduction.

If option 1 is selected, this will have cost tax payers (approx) 0.14% of the savings.

If option 2 is selected, this will have cost tax payers (approx) 0.07% of the savings.

Money well spent as long as there are reductions made in a sensible manner.

Also, this was a bid from Deloitte, they had to compete against Ernst & Young, IBM, Bell, and Accenture...so it could have cost more .

Thanks for the replies reficul , seedofchucky, beauty from pain for the replies. I can tell that we share a similar view on this

Star for each of you.

@ palg1, I agree less with your comment, yet I still respect your input. Your reply was well thought out and made some good points. I thank you for sharing your point of view. I give you a star too

One of the points you made caught my attention. Perhaps I can get your opinion on this when you get the chance?

You mentioned the always feared downsizing in the budget (federal I am assuming). I remember when my father worked in a government building. They would throw out perfectly good equipment each year just so they can buy new stuff the next year. If they don't spend their whole budget they would get less the next year. This was during the early to mid 90s so I am sure things have changed a lot since then.

I am wondering if Harper and the rest of them are using this as an excuse to beef up the budget. Of course there is always the possibility that this is purely innocent. And they are trying to get this done as effectively as possible. I didn't make the connection of spending 20 million to save 40 billion until you mentioned it. That being said, as I and other members have stated, it is our elected official's job to do this. They get paid good money to do a certain job. Each of them has a job description. Someone along they way has "passed the buck" and made it seem that we require outside firms to do our work. I can tell we won't totally agree on this, but I am interested in your opinion on this since you are what we can call an "insider".

Cheers.

So who here voted for that turd Harper?

I suggest we get all your income and use it to pay that consultant firm. (which probably gave money in political contributions to Harper)

Harper, Canada's Bush, destroying Canada's good image since 2006. Thanks much Alberta. Thanks much.

reply to post by Vitchilo

So who here voted for that turd Harper?

I promise you not I!

Harper, Canada's Bush, destroying Canada's good image since 2006. Thanks much Alberta. Thanks much.

To that I must scream an unreligious "AMEN!"

I was surprised at all the Harper lovers around election time on ATS. No one in Canada I know likes him or the cons. Sure the Liberals and NDP are all in the same boat. But the majority is what is allowing all this crap to happen. We are helpless