DOGE Canada anyone?

The #1 problem in Canada today is too much government. The high cost of taxation, regulations are the largest contributors to the high cost of housing, energy, food, and public debt.

DOGE America offers perks to resign.

Federal employees are being offered buyouts under the Trump administration’s new “deferred resignation” initiative, with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send emails with the proposal to federal workers, according to Katie Miller, a member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“This email is being sent to more than TWO MILLION federal employees,” Miller wrote in a post on X on Jan. 28, in which she shared a report by Axios indicating that the Trump administration will offer to pay eligible federal workers through the end of September, provided that they hand in their resignation by Feb. 6.

A memo from OPM circulated on Jan. 28 in the agency aligns with reporting from Axios cited by Miller. It provides more details about the deferred resignation initiative, though it does not provide any details about the timing and scope of the email containing the proposal that is to be circulated to workers.

The White House did not respond to a request for additional information about the initiative. One of the objectives of DOGE is to reduce the size of the federal workforce as part of its broader mission to enhance governmental efficiency.

Source: “Trump Admin Offers Buyouts to Nearly All Federal Employees”, Tom Ozimek, The Epoch Times, Jan 29, 2025.

Is Pierre listening?

The next Prime Minister of Canada will be Pierre Poilievre. I hope he is channeling his “inner Trump” to follow the DOGE playbook to achieve “efficiencies” in the Government of Canada.

There are endless opportunities to bring out public institutions into alignment with the needs of Canadians while reducing the size, cost and scope of authority to a level that is both affordable (cut taxation in half!) and fall less bureaucratic.

May I offer a suggestion?

Years ago, I met a friendly “Policy Analyst” who was employed in an Ontario Government Ministry. The described his job as follows

“When the MPPs pass a new law in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, someone has to calculate the resources needed to enforce that law. My job is to participate in producing that calculation to determine all of the human and capital resources needed to launch the new enforcement operation and how much to sustain it year after year.

Needless to say, this is a complex calculation. It involves identifying additional employees needed; offices, equipment and vehicles they need to fulfill their duties; supply contracts between the government and external vendors (included are labour unions and companies that supply products (equipment, etc) and services; and other considerations which affect day-to-day operations (example: expense accounts).

When the calculation is complete, it is presented to the Legislative Assembly for approval and submission to the Budgeting process.”

My suggestion

Cancel all Policy Analyst full time positions. Establish market conditions to encourage a competitive consulting sector of independent organizations to provide DOGE Consulting Services to the government. Consulting contracts will be awarded on a competitive basis based solely on merit.

DOGE consulting services include:

1. Perform the work previously done by Policy Analysts, but on an ‘as-needed’ basis.

2. Perform efficiency audits. By department and/or division, a systematic review of all policies, procedures and regulations that fail to serve the interests of taxpayers. The DOGE organizations would receive a one time fee (in addition to standard consulting fees) for a percentage of that savings to taxpayers achievable by eliminating unnecessary operating costs of the government program.

3. Publish their complete findings for the public to see.

Transparency and accountability, at last‼️

Elections are nothing more than ‘political theatre’ to convince citizens that they live in an “electoral democracy” that effectively serves the needs and priorities of citizens. Voters expect their elected representatives to live up to their election promises but it’s much harder that voters know. The typical MP or MPP has much less influence on policy than imagined, especially when it comes to their own riding.

The real action power is in the bureaucracy, sometimes referred to as the “Deep State” as the Policy Analyst taught me. I propose this DOGE Canada mechanism is a possible way to keep the “Deep State” on its toes. The published findings of DOGE consulting assignments will show taxpayers where to decrease the size, cost and scope of responsibilities of government operations.

Every public official will know that a “DOGE audit” can be conducted at any time on operations under their authority. For this reason, efficiency will be a topmost consideration for any department initiatives they launch. Budget excesses will become rare if poor budget performance can demotion or even job termination. The public will come to expect a steady improvement in public sector services over time accompanied by lower taxes.

Is DOGE Canada trustworthy?

Incentives matter. The executives of DOGE will be incented to hire only on merit to ensure that only those with the best skills and knowledge will be hired as DOGE consultants to do this important, and potentially, lucrative work.

DOGE employees will be much less susceptible to corruption than government officials because their compensation will be augmented by substantial “project bonuses” from identifying efficiencies and saving money for taxpayers . By comparison, special interest lobbyists are known to “game” advantages for themselves through coercive means. Public sector union leaders, for example, have succeeded in acquiring too much money and influence to swing election outcomes while securing special privileges only for their members - all at the expense of everyone else. Since DOGE consultants will not be government employees or officials, they will be removed from the attention of lobbyists and special interest groups.

DOGE audits that affect operational processes and workflow will be where that greatest efficiencies are likely to be found.

The opportunity to gain substantially efficiencies exist using the highly sophisticated tools and methods common in today’s digital economy. These will affect all stakeholders and existing vested interests.

Using the labour union example again, a review of all regulations affecting employee performance and ability to adapt to the productivity improvements expected when investment in new systems are concerned, will be an important consideration for continued employment. Unions are known to favour the addition of more staff instead of investments in making current staff more productive. As a result, many government union members have preferences for the workplace status quo because they have never been expected to adapt to significant workplace changes.

DOGE audits will likely reveal the unions’ involvement in inhibiting productivity gains of government workers at substantial cost to the general public. It will be interesting to see public reports on these matters.

Do you want DOGE Canada?

As a Less Government Advocate since 1979, I have always wanted a way to understand how my tax dollars were spent. Today, the technology exists to track, report and improve on this objective. It’s important to me. How about you?