It's good to hear the Manitoba government plans on reducing the size of the civil service by 600 positions; at least they're actually talking about the need to reduce the need for a reduction.

Incredibly, the unions are speaking out against the 'cuts' with the usual mantra - it will hurt families, etc.

But if you take a closer look at the numbers you'll see that's a load of bologna.

As of March 31, 2008, roughly when the economic slowdown began, the government had 14,065 people working for the civil service.

Yet, by March 31, 2012, the Selinger government had increased the bureaucracy to an astounding 15,300 positions - a gain of 1,235.

So even if the government cuts the size of government by 600 jobs, it will still be 635 positions larger than when the economic slowdown began.

As much as the unions cry foul about the move, one has to remember two things:

1) The civil service was large even before it added 1,235 jobs. Frontier Centre for Public Policy research regularly notes that Manitoba has one of the largest public sectors in the country.

2) Over the next five years, 23% of civil service workers will be ready for retirement. Thus, there will be 3,519 employees ready for retirement over the next five years. Shaving off 600 spots shouldn't be too hard!

Keep those numbers in mind the next time you hear cries about the "difficult cuts."

UPDATE: I can't believe I forgot to include it earlier, so I'll add it now - the almost mandatory comparison with the best-run provincial government in the country right now - Saskatchewan. While sitting in a budget briefing earlier this year, the Sask Finance Minister noted their government had reduced its bureaucracy by 1,302 positions over the previous few years. Imagine that - they're rolling in resource revenues but still downsizing the size of government to save their taxpayers millions. Hashtag - #Leadership.