Mark Carney confronts the federal public-service unions Mark Carney deserves support as he confronts the federal public-service unions. After the extraordinary expansion of government employment under his predecessor, restraint is overdue. The Public Service Alliance of Canada announced this week that it will hold strike votes for 120,000 federal employees, beginning Nov. 16. The dispute reportedly involves wages, job security, remote work, and protections concerning artificial intelligence. A strike vote, of course, doesn’t guarantee a walkout, but the union is preparing to increase the pressure. Carney should hold the line. And if he does, Conservatives (and conservatives) should support him. The starting point is to distinguish the civil service from the unions representing its employees. The civil service is a noble and necessary institution. Its traditions of professionalism, impartiality, and public service deserve respect. Its interests aren’t identical to PSAC’s. As my former boss Stephen Harper used to say, government employs people to deliver services and discharge public responsibilities. Providing employment itself isn’t its purpose. Between 2015 and 2024, the federal public service grew from approximately 257,000 employees to nearly 368,000—an increase of 43 percent. Are Canadians supposed to assume that government became correspondingly more effective? The broader productivity evidence points in the opposite direction. Economist Stephen Tapp’s research finds that government-sector labour productivity declined by an average of 0.3 percent annually over that period, while business-sector productivity grew. As I argued in a 2024 paper for the Public Policy Forum, layers of approvals, outdated technology and cumbersome processes can consume resources while frustrating public servants and the people they serve. Boosting state capacity requires changing how it works rather than adding more people. PSAC president Sharon DeSousa says the union will not let the government find savings “on the backs of workers.” But where, precisely, should savings come from if compensation, staffing and working arrangements are all treated as beyond serious reconsideration? Taxpayers are workers too. They have families to support and their own employment uncertainties. Their interests deserve representation.  The strike threat also exposes a problem with labour relations in government monopolies. Canadians cannot obtain a passport from a competitor. That strengthens the case for resolving disputes through binding arbitration rather than withdrawing services from people who have nowhere else to go. Public servants deserve fair compensation and fair treatment when their positions change or disappear. But preserving every existing job cannot be the overriding objective. We should neither disdain public-sector employment nor lionize it. It’s a means to an end. If government can deliver those ends better and more cheaply with fewer people, it has an obligation to the rest of us to do so. Carney can respect public servants while insisting on a smaller, more effective administration. Indeed, defending the institution’s performance and public standing requires him to resist the union’s demands.

The European Union and Canada will endorse an unprecedented alliance at a summit next week, cementing plans for associate EU membership for Ottawa as both reduce their dependence on the US. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Majority of panellists set to decide future of WA uni merger have links to UWA watoday.com.au/national/west…

Australia is on the edge of an economic abyss warns OECD chief Mathias Cormann ahead of a major speech in which he urges immediate reform as the only viable remedy. Read more: bit.ly/4eDtfom

Australia's doctors are issuing a dire warning, as political pressure grows to dramatically cut migration.