NUMBERS OF CIVIL SERVANTS

I am emailing to inquire why Prince Edward Island has such a disproportionate amount of government officials and government employment compared to Alberta. Being that Alberta aids P.E.I. in terms of equalization payments, how does P.E.I. justify these variances? P.E.I.’s main industries are agriculture, fisheries and tourism and the strategic industries of aerospace, bioscience, information technology and renewable energy. Would it be fair to add government employment to this list? I believe it would be. Prince Edward Island really should be part of New Brunswick as much as Vancouver Island (much larger area and five times the pop. of P.E.I.) is part of British Columbia.

The population of P.E.I. is 159,625 (2020 stats), which has four MPs (one MP per 39,906 pop.), four Senators and 27 MLAs (one per 5,192 pop.). P.E.I. has 22,929 total government employees, or 14.4 per cent of the population, according to 2018 stats. Alberta has a population of 4,436,000 (2020), 34 MPs (one per 130,470 pop.), four Senators and 87 MLAs (one per 51,000 pop.). A total of 95,000 Albertans are government employees, only 2.1 per cent of the total population of the province. I am hopeful that the mind-trust of The Guardian will provide answers to all the valid points I made above.

James C. McGowan, Calgary, Alta.