An old issue that seems to come up every election in Outaouais is the repartition of federal government jobs between Ottawa and Gatineau. In 1984, the government adopted a policy stating that 25% of federal jobs should be located in Gatineau and 75% should be in Ottawa. To the best of my knowledge, that target has never been met. The current ratio is 21-79.

Every election, at any level, politicians start talking about how they will fix the problem and how their opponents have been sitting on their hands for decades. No one seems to stop and actually ask why that policy is such a good thing in the first place.

I personally find this debate somewhat annoying: as a tax payer, I expect my government to try to deliver the best services and the lowest possible cost. When it comes to selecting a location for new offices, I would hope that the driving factor in the decision would be “value for money” … not an arbitrary quest for regional justice.

As a Libertarian, I’m especially annoyed when I see a Conservative calling for more federal jobs on the Quebec side (Paul Fréchette, CPC, Hull-Aylmer) :

 Parmi ses priorités, il y a l’attribution de 25 % des emplois fédéraux de la capitale en Outaouais. « Nous autres ce que les libéraux ont promis pendant 30 ans, puis qu’ils n’ont jamais fait, nous autres, on va le réaliser. C’est en voie de réalisation actuellement », dit-il.

It’s also funny when I see the Bloc running on that issue … because if they had their way, the ratio would probably be closer to 0-100. The Liberals don’t really have a lot of credibility on the issue either, considering that Pontiac, Hull-Aylmer and Gatineau had been Liberal for more than a decade before the 2004 election.

The strange thing is that most voters don’t seem to care that much about this. I know a lot of Ottawa residents who work in Gatineau and Gatineau residents who work in Ottawa. The Ottawa-Gatineau population is fairly mobile. I don’t think the average voter cares that much on which side of the Ottawa river he earns a living … as long as the pay check ends up at the right address.