By: Pat Daley

  Smart consumers know enough to be wary of the those who promise the same quality of service at a lower price.
  It's something to keep in mind when we're talking about the Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) jobs fund fiasco. Have you noticed that the people who started the hollering about mismanagement and no supervision are many of the same ones who thought downsizing the civil service was a good idea?
  "I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see the same thing in other departments," says Public Service Alliance of Canada President Daryl Bean. Between 5,000 and 6,000 people - more than 20% of HRDC staff - have been cut by the Chrétien government since 1995, he says. Not all of those are in the program under fire, but you get the point.
  "If you don't have the people to do the paperwork and pressure is coming from MPs and the minister's office to process applications, then a lot of the time - because it's a political program, by and large - the message has been to staff: process it," according to Bean, who says he feels confident predicting that the Auditor-General will find fault in other departments in his 2001 report.
  All the calls for more tax cuts and reducing the costs of government ring out without a thought being given to a crucial question: who's going to do the work?
  So smart consumers also look for the real motivations behind a sales pitch. The last time the word "boondoggle" was bandied about so much, it was coming from Mike Harris's Conservatives in opposition. Only they were talking about Ontario's social housing program.
  Did they fix the problems when they became government? No. They got rid of the program and homeless shelters are overflowing during the good times.
  Just something to keep in mind if you think government job creation programs are a good idea. Properly managed, of course.

Pat Daley is a freelance writer and editor in Athlone in Simcoe County, Ontario.