Wielding the axe

While one unwarranted firing is making news nationally, it's worth noting that many more are in the works at the provincial level in Saskatchewan. And the Sask Party government apparently isn't shy about saying that it's making its decisions based on politics rather than competence:

Saskatchewan deputy premier Ken Krawetz says hundreds of government workers could lose their jobs in the coming weeks.

People are being evaluated individually on their ability to do the job and on whether they share the same philosophy as Premier and Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall, Krawetz said.

"There are individuals who have played key roles within the NDP. They have been campaign leaders, etc. I'm sure that those individuals would have [a] difficult time supporting the philosophy of the new premier and the new government," Krawetz said Tuesday.

As I noted at the time, the Sask Party's initial round of deputy minister-level firings may not have presented quite the same problem based on the level and type of employees involved. But the latest news raises far more issues about the likelihood of a Devine-style political purge.

From Krawetz' own words, it seems obvious that politics are receiving at least as much attention as individual job suitability in a wide range of government positions. And it looks like the Wall government is taking the position that any "role" within the NDP constitutes reason for dismissal - with no consideration at all given to the question of whether it's still possible to perform a job effectively while disagreeing with Wall's ideology, or to the fact that continuity plays an important role in ensuring that the public sector is able to function.

It remains to be seen just how far the Sask Party decides to go in trying to remove NDP supporters from the province's civil service. But all signs right now point toward a government which plans to use Saskatchewan's public sector for partisan rewards and punishments rather than seeing competence or institutional knowledge as having any value at all. And it may not be long before the result is to replay Saskatchewan's last disastrous spell of right-wing government.