EDITORIAL : THE DAILY NATIONAL POST, CANADA

Slay the deficit on time

Say it ain't so. Barely a week after their historic victory, the Tories are already hedging their promise to eliminate the deficit a year earlier than originally forecast. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says he needs time to consult economists and to draft a clear plan to deliver the extra savings Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised during the just-concluded election.

During the campaign, critics attacked the Tory plan for its speculative nature, asking how the government could be sure it would find the savings it was counting on to deliver on its promises. But the stop-the-gravytrain-style pledge went over well with voters, and was politically necessary, as both the NDP and Liberals were also planning to eliminate the deficit early (with higher corporate tax rates and cuts to military purchases and law-and-order initiatives).

But now comfortable in office for the next four years, the Conservatives clearly feel comfortable dropping that pledge and sticking to their original plan: a shortfall of $300-million in 2014-15.

In the meantime, the Tories will implement other expensive campaign promises, including an HST deal for Quebec. Other pledges, including income splitting, remain contingent on the books being balanced.

The Tories are ignoring one of the cardinal rules in politics: do what you say you'll do. If they can find $2-billion for Quebec, they can find $300-million to get rid of that remaining deficit. This is one promise the voters should make clear they want delivered on schedule.

The public sector's road to riches

As the federal government looks for ways to get back to surplus and the provinces fight rising tides of red ink, public-sector wages are being eyed as one possible source of savings. But even when determined to hold the line on spending, governments are finding it difficult to maintain public-sector pay levels, let alone rein them in. The blame-game currently playing out in Canada's largest city shows us why.

Earlier this month, the Toronto Police Services Board reached an agreement with the Toronto Police Association for a new contract for the Service's 8,000 uniformed and civilian employees. It will provide wage hikes of 11.2% over four years, making police officers in Toronto the best paid in the country, with a 1st Class constable making more than $90,000 a year at the end of the contract. Sergeants and detectives will make even more.

Such a generous boost in pay for the Toronto police will not only cost the city millions, but will also give Toronto's other public servants ammunition when it comes time to renegotiate their own contracts. Every other government faces the same issue: Each new union contract sets the new bar that the next union demands their contract must at least match, if not exceed. Whether handed our by an arbitrator or a government wary of labour unrest, the constantly climbing wages are not only putting budgets under pressure, but also serve to anger a general public who have little hope of seeing such raises or re-ceiving comparable pensions and benefits.

The problem is particularly acute in Ontario, where Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government has ramped up provincial spending by 50% since 2003 while buying labour peace from the public-sector unions with generous contracts. After the Toronto police deal was announced, Mr. McGuinty clearly took delight in pointing out that despite all the criticism aimed at his handling of union negotiations, he was still delivering better results for the taxpayers than the administration of Toronto's right-wing Mayor Rob Ford.

But Toronto Police Services Board chair Alok Mukherjee quickly fired back, telling the Premier that if Toronto hadn't signed a deal with the police, an arbitrator would have been called in to do it -and that arbitrator would have looked to other recent agreements signed by Ontario as a guide for what an appropriate settlement would be. Toronto's hand, argued Mr. Mukherjee, has been forced by years of reckless spending by the province.

Notwithstanding this he-said/ she-said, the excuses must end, and not just in Toronto: The constantly climbing salaries for public servants need to be brought under control. Reckless spending by one politician forces the hand of another, creating upward pressure on wages that leave every taxpayer on the hook.

It will take courage and political will to reverse the trend of constantly climbing public-sector wages being considered the default, even as the economy has struggled and deficits soared. But if government spending on valued programs is to remain sustainable, there's no choice. We hope governments in other Canadian cities and provinces are able to do a better job on this vital task than those found in Toronto.