Want to hang out with movie and TV stars like Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell and other A-listers? Or at least remain as close to them as you are now? If so, consider moving to Canada. They — and many other celebs — have threatened to leave the U.S. of A., forever if Republican-heir apparent Donald Trump becomes president. Or join Alec Baldwin who moved there (or said he was going to) when George W. Bush was elected. Other stars have opted for other places (Samuel L. Jackson, South Africa). But for most it’s Canada. Whatever, the point is they are outta here if you know what happens.

So what about you? Are you chopped liver?

Make a plan. Take a stand. It doesn’t have to be political. Make it about money. Your future.

What if you are an underpaid, disappointed, not-getting-any-younger American civil servant? You’re sick of working, not thrilled by your Generation X coworkers and fed up with furloughs, shutdowns and being bad mouthed by politicians. Seriously, isn’t it time you too draw a line in the sand? Issue a my-way-or-the-highway demand to politicians and the public. What if you are too threatened to move to Canada if your federal agency doesn’t give you a buyout by, say, January at the latest? That is not as silly as it sounds.

The buyout package for Canadian civil servants is much more generous. How does $70K to 90K (Canadian) sound to you? Eh!

In the U.S., the maximum buyout a federal worker can get now is $25,000. And that’s before those nasty deductions for things like federal and state taxes, FICA and whatever. The Defense Department has asked Congress to sweeten the buyout deal by raising the maximum payment (again before taxes) to $40,000. Defense wants to trim its civilian (and military) workforce, and thinks a buyout would be the least painful way to do it. If it has to RIF (fire) employees, the last-hired people will be the first fired. The $40K proposal has a long, long way to go. But IF it happens, IF being the operative word, it would likely be extended to other agencies. Meantime, back to Canada.

In 2012, the government decided it needed to eliminate 10,000 civil service jobs a year, for a three-year period. Being Canada, it didn’t want to fire people. Instead, the government proposed giving many civil servants (the word bureaucrat is probably illegal there) up to six months’ salary as a severance or buyout package. The Canadian Broadcasting Company at the time reported that for some long-time senior feds the package would be equal to between 66 and 82 weeks of pay. The so-called “golden handshake” would also give departing civil servants up to $11,000 that would pay for school or retraining.

Workers whose jobs were to be abolished who declined the buyouts would have 365 days to find another government job and those who took lower paying jobs would continued to be paid at their old (abolished job) salary.

Oh, Canada!

Although many Americans think of Canadians as our cousins with better manners, there was some backlash then, even up there. One hothead with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the sweet buyout proposal for Canadian civil servants proved the government was part of the problem, not the solution. Sounding like a lot of Americans, he said that “lots of people in the private sector have been through difficult times” but didn’t get the golden handshake proposed for government workers.

Like the U.S. government, the Canadian civil service had its own downsizing buyout program in 1995. The good news, as reported by the CBC, is that 44,000 civil servants left after being offered even more generous buyout packages. The not-so-good news after the buyouts came from the Auditor General, the equivalent of our Comptroller General. He said that many employees left their jobs, cashed their severance cheques (remember, this is Canada where they speak real English) and came back, into government, as consultants.

Nearly Useless Factoids

By Michael O’Connell

The average annual snowfall for St. John’s, Newfoundland, is 131.9 inches.

Source: Current Results

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