For more than a week now, Prime Minister Mark Carney and federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne have been preparing Canadians for an “austerity budget,” and perhaps even public-service layoffs.

Although while talking to reporters this week, Champagne was less committal. He spoke only of “adjustments” to the 440,000 federal civil service.

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An adjustment can be done with tweezers or the twist of a knob. To cut federal spending and carve the fat out of Ottawa’s workforce will require something more akin to a double-edged battle axe.

Let’s hope the budget, expected in October or November (six to eight months late), genuinely will be an austere one. Over the past decade, the Trudeau government increased federal spending by an annual average of seven per cent

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