The serious shortage of personnel observed in various ministries directly threatens the quality of public services offered to the population, according to several unions of Quebec government employees.
Some believe that the problem has grown to such an extent that it raises fears of a dismantling of the state, which would be quietly orchestrated by the Legault government.
In total, five trade union centers representing some 40,000 public sector employees wanted to join their voices on Monday to sound the alarm by demanding that the Legault government proceed with the hiring of the thousands of civil servants necessary, according to them, to the proper functioning of the Quebec state.
Gathered in a press conference in Quebec, they said they wanted a meeting with the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, in order to make her aware of their demands as quickly as possible. And they hope that the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, will have a good thought for public servants in his March 22 budget.
According to them, as an employer, the Government of Quebec does not seem to see the seriousness of the situation, nor to recognize that it is having more and more difficulty attracting and retaining qualified personnel in a large number of fields, whether they are psychologists, engineers, computer scientists, wildlife officers, corrections officers or others. Result: Quebec is depriving itself of valuable expertise in several sectors of activity.
The five unions in question are the Union of Public and Parapublic Service of Quebec (SFPQ), the Union of Professionals (SPGQ), the Association of Engineers (APIGQ), the Union of Peace Officers in Correctional Services (SAPSCQ- CSN) and the Union of Wildlife Protection Officers (SAPFQ).
According to them, the current extent of the labor shortage within the Quebec public service is forcing the government to resort “disproportionately” to subcontracting.
They note that about a thousand positions are vacant in computer science in the government apparatus and hundreds more in the Ministry of Transport alone, just think of engineers.
At the Ministère des Transports, precisely, this translates in particular into a lack of surveillance of construction sites, a shortcoming that runs counter to the conclusions of the Charbonneau Commission, anxious to recall the importance of maintaining surveillance expertise at the internally to avoid any slippage, they lamented in chorus.
At the new ministry delegated to the digital transformation of the government, headed by Minister Éric Caire, a third of the labor needs have been entrusted to external firms as subcontractors.
The president of the SPGQ, Line Lamarre, does not hide her concern. “Are we seeing a government that says to itself: the more there will be outsourcing, the fewer people there will be in the state, the lighter the state will be? Are we heading towards that: a real dismantling of the state? she wondered.
Ms. Lamarre sees in this way of making the government an “unwillingness to hire real”, which is based on working conditions and salaries that are less attractive than in the private sector.
Another example: at the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, the union deplores the too few wildlife officers available on the ground, which opens the door to poaching. Wildlife officers will soon be “an endangered species” in Quebec, fears SAPFQ president Martin Perreault.