'Extremely marginal saving': Critics sceptical of cleaning service privatization

With a private company looking to turn a profit off a contract,KenRasmussen, a professor at the JohnsonShoyamaGraduate School of Public Policy,says privatization can turn into a race to the bottomin terms of wages.

"Ithink a lot of people will see this as picking on the most vulnerable members of your workforce," he said.

Ideology vs. savings

Bymoensaid the real issue"is the spending of billions of dollars, and hundreds and millions of dollars, that the government has done that wasn't appropriate;it wasn't needed and it's put our economy into a tail-spin."

It's a direction governments generally take when they're facing desperate times.- KenRasmussen, professor at the JohnsonShoyamaGraduate School of Public Policy

ButRasmussen said these cuts have more to do with ideology than they do with savings.

"It's an extremely marginal saving for a government that is facing a very deep, deep [financial] hole,"saidRasmussen.

Even if the government says it is just consideringprivatization, he believes they are likely serious about pursuing it.

"It's a direction governments generally take when they're facing desperate times," saidRasmussen.

He said this move can be interpreted as a signal for how willing the Saskatchewan Party is to saving, regardless of how ill-advised. He said whatever savings occur fromprivatizationhappen in the long-run and are generally minimal, as the work that was expected of public employees still needs to be done one way or another.