The Quebec government is cutting two per cent of its bureaucrats.
Treasury Board President Martin Coiteux unveiled measures Tuesday to slim down the costs of public service.
In addition to cutting two per cent of jobs – about 1,150 jobs out of 60,000 – there will also be a freeze on performance bonuses and limits on training and ministers’ travel outside Quebec.
The number of contracts awarded to non-government consultants will also be reduced to a bare minimum.
“We have to act well on the cost of the public sector,” he said, also telling a news conference he hopes attrition will be enough to achieve the job-cutting objective.
With the government set for contract talks, they hope these cuts will set the tone, and added that bureaucrats in key health and education sectors will not be affected.
“The pressure is also coming from the people of Quebec who want the job to be done,” he said.
The Liberal government has made balancing the budget by 2015-16 its top political priority, recently announcing plans to hike daycare fees.
In the National Assembly, Premier Philippe Couillard said the PQ hid the real state of the economy in the April election, explaining why the deep cuts need to be made.
The opposition PQ said the Liberals have put all their eggs in one basket.
“The economic situation is very bad,” said PQ MNA Pierre-Karl Peladeau. “We're seeing closures and what we can say is that the premier is betting the economic development on the Plan Nord.”
Meantime, the CAQ said the Liberal plan doesn't go nearly far enough.
“We have to cut the number of jobs in the bureaucracy and we're talking about 20 to 25,000 jobs,” said CAQ leader Francois Legault.
Faced with critics on all sides, the Liberal government plans to use its majority to forge ahead with even more cutbacks and more measures are expected in an economic update to be presented next week.
With files from The Canadian Press
