Mar 27, 2008 05:32 PM  Chinta Puxley  THE CANADIAN PRESS Ontario is already in a recession and needs to look at slashing spending by cutting civil servants who just sit around reading reports and “breathing each other’s exhaust,” Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said today.  Tory said the Liberal government has intimidated manufacturers, school boards and other agencies to keep them from speaking out against Tuesday’s budget, but said Ontario’s deteriorating economy cries out for some bold action.

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While the western economy is booming, national growth remains low — likely because Ontario’s economy is shrinking and dragging the average down, he said. 

“Reports that will come out in the coming months will show that we’re in a recession in Ontario right now,” Tory said following a speech to a Toronto business audience. 

“And I say that with no joy, but it really supports the case I was making this morning, that we’re on the wrong track. Mr. McGuinty’s policies are contributing to negative growth in Ontario, to job losses, to companies closing down. We need to take bold action and change the course.” 

Hours after his breakfast speech and following a contradicting assessment from one of the province’s chief economists, Tory’s staff scrambled to clarify his comments, saying he misspoke in French and meant to say Ontario “may” be in a recession now.

Don Drummond, chief economist at TD Bank, said it’s not clear yet whether Ontario is in a recession since provincial numbers are only released annually. 

“The employment numbers for Ontario have actually been quite robust in the last little while,” Drummond said, adding exports were “horrifically weak.”

“There is nothing very definitive that would say that Ontario was in a negative in the fourth quarter.”

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan refused to say whether the province is going through a recession at the moment, but said he was surprised it has taken Tory this long to realize some sectors are suffering.

But Tory is not doing anyone any favours when he “parrots” the negative musings of federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who called Ontario the last place in Canada to start a business, Duncan said.

“Mr. Tory does damage to himself,” Duncan said when asked whether Tory’s gloomy predictions harm Ontario’s economic prospects. ``Mr. Tory does damage to himself when he suggests that the first response to slow growth in the economy is to lay more people off. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

But Tory said it doesn’t make sense to maintain Ontario’s high business tax rate or “out-of-control” spending while ignoring the bloated civil service. As the government prepares to release its ``sunshine list” of civil servants who earn more than $100,000 annually, Tory said no business can afford to operate like the Ontario government.

Ontario’s employment growth has been largely supported by the public sector, Tory said, adding there are more than 20 vacancies for policy analyst jobs in the province being advertised right now.

“These kinds of jobs are people who are breathing each other’s exhaust and sitting around, analyzing each other’s papers,” Tory said. “There hasn’t been enough attention paid to looking at whether those people are really making a productive contribution to the effective delivery of public services in Ontario.” 

The Ontario public service hasn’t taken advantage of technology which would allow work to be done by fewer people, he said. It doesn’t mean massive layoffs — just cutting the civil service through attrition, Tory said.

Premier Dalton McGuinty dismissed the suggestion in the legislature, saying Ontario has one of the leanest bureaucracies in the country and nothing good will come of cutting corporate taxes or public servants.

Cutting either would mean fewer nurses, teachers, water inspectors, public health workers and police officers, McGuinty said.

“What he’s really saying and he should say to Ontarians (is) he wants these people to be fired,” he said.

Warren (Smokey) Thomas, head of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union who represents 45,000 civil servants, said Tory is mistaken if he thinks cutting bureaucrats saves money.

Under the last Conservative regime, Thomas said they slashed civil servants only to contract out work at twice the price. The Liberals are slowly rebuilding the public sector by hiring cheaper, competent workers as those pricey contracts run out, he said.

“All the guy knows how to do is attack,” Thomas said about Tory. “He’s just like Flaherty. I think it’s wearing thin.”