this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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The theme seems to be "reduce operating spending, increase capital spending". We'll see how that will blow over with the opposition.

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[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (27 children)

Yay! Lower quality services is some that benefits everyone! Thanks bank daddy!

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 7 points 2 days ago (26 children)

Which services are you thinking of?

The major thing I've seen is reducing the number of public sector employees back to 2020 levels, which doesn't seem wild. (I haven't seen a good explanation of why we needed to increase the public sector by 20% since then, nor of what we got out of that. If you have anything, I'd love to read it!) Throw in some reductions of outside consultants etc...

There are undoubtedly some programs getting cut. But given we're teetering on the edge of an adversary induced recession, that doesn't seem unsreasonable.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

(I haven't seen a good explanation of why we needed to increase the public sector by 20% since then, nor of what we got out of that. If you have anything, I'd love to read it!)

Here's an easy explanation: we didn't have enough.

Wait times are no fun, right? Need more people to process the things, or you need to remove some of the regulatory steps involved. Both those, the doing of the work and the fruitless "just make it faster" boondoggles, need meatbags to do the doing.

You now how we can tell we didn't have enough? WAIT TIMES. When it's zero, you may have too many staff. When it's a day, you're probably just right. Show me a wait time report and I'll show you 12 months in processing delays that we should have avoided by grabbing an intelligent peon and making them do some things of the things that need doing -- because processing delays and wait times are absolutely the shits right now.

QED

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

To each their own.

Edit: removed personal details.

If you know anyone who works in government or a quasi governmental agency, they will tell you horror stories of colleagues who couldn't be removed but couldn't be arsed to do anything over the bare minimum (like being sober, showing up and handling at least one file a day.)

There has to be something in between the nihilistic conservative "burn it all down, no more bureaucracy!" and the opposite "every government employee is sacred!" I think a slow reduction through attrition and buyouts seems pretty reasonable and gives enough time to actually find efficiencies and innovations.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The fundamental flaw is equating corporate efficiency with public effectiveness. A company's goal is shareholder returns, so it serves profitable customers and abandons the rest. We see this taken to its extreme with certain venture capital and private equity firms: they can buy a company, burden it with the debt used for its own acquisition, extract massive fees and dividends, and leave it a hollowed out shell. When it collapses, the architects of that failure are shielded from the consequences.

A government's mission is the opposite: to serve everyone, especially the vulnerable. Applying this profit extraction model to public service doesn't eliminate costs it just shifts them, following the destructive maxim of 'privatize the profits, socialize the costs.' For a corporation, this might be a successful short-term play. But for a government it's long-term ruin

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Applying this profit extraction model to public service

Getting back to 2019 spending levels over a few years is hardly hollowing out the government.

And what that freed up money is doing is investing in stuff that makes those services work better.

For example in healthcare, which is hanging on by a thread, I think a few billion are going to building and renovating hospitals and investing in a new medical school. Those all make the services more efficient and sustainable in the long run.

Edit: My goodness, the cuts are something like 13 billion out of a 500 billion budget.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Most of the money got reallocated to the military though.

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They're cutting 13 billion. 51 billion (over 10 years) is going to local infrastucture; housing, roads, health and sanitation facilities.

Yes, military got more (~82 billion) and I don't love that. Though, one part I do love is that a chunk of that military is also dual use, so climate emergencies like wildfires, floods etc.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Then give it to firefighters, climate scientists and forestry. The military is reactive not preventative.

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sure, you can dislike the military spending.

That doesn't mean the budget isn't investing more in the public than it is withdrawing.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I dislike the increase in spending on military because the returns to the public are minimal, the US has proven that, decades running.

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Again, that's a fine and valid critique of the budget.

The fundamental flaw is equating corporate efficiency with public effectiveness...

This position however, does not seem valid when the budget is putting in more than it removes from actual public services, 51 billion v 13.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

That part wasn't a critique of the budget, it was a critique of your pitch for efficiency. You pivoted the discussion, I followed.

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe re-read what you reaponded to?

It's pretty nonsensical to claim that because you're providing a public good you can't do so more effectively.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Nah I'm good dude, don't have the energy, you can have this one.

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 1 points 10 hours ago

Phew, I was thinking the same. I have no idea what you are trying to say.

Cheers.

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