VANCOUVER: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) says the massive pay hikes for B.C. deputy and assistant deputy ministers show the provincial government is out-of-touch with taxpayers ability to continue to pay for an expanding public sector.

The province says its new pay schedule for executive level public service employees will bring B.C. more in line with other jurisdictions across Canada. Deputy minister's salaries increased by 35%, from $221,760 to $299,215 and the deputy minister to the Premier's salary by 43%, from $243,936 to $348,600. The maximum achievable salary for assistant deputy ministers increased by 22%, from $160,000 to $195,000. The average weekly wage rate in B.C. went up by 3% (not corrected for inflation) between 2006 and 2007.

"If one government raises its public sector salaries because another government does, without taking into consideration taxpayer's ability to fund these increases, it has the potential to spiral completely out of control," said Maureen Bader, B.C. Director of the CTF. "First we had the 30% MLA pay increase, then a variety of municipal pay increases, and now huge senior level bureaucrat pay increases - we are on a dangerous trajectory with no end in sight."

The government claims it needs to increase the competitiveness of B.C.'s professional public service as an employer to ensure it is able to attract and retain skilled people. More than 50% of senior level bureaucrats may retire in the next 10 years.

"Instead of competing with the private sector for scarce labour resources, use the changing B.C. demographic to reduce the size of government and lower taxes," continued Bader. "As the private sector creates wealth while the government redistributes it, we can expect lower economic growth in the future if government forces up labour costs and raises taxes to pay for them."