These costly punitive transfers are the central justification for presenting them as a cost-saving measure. Usher says that when his ministry analyzed areas of wastage, transfers were an obvious target:
Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service
"I wouldn't be able to give you the exact figures because that would depend on how many persons were going to be transferred. But looking at past data, we know that there has been quite a bit. In fact, the recommendation coming from the cost saving committee, that's a committee created at the joint union level, they were the ones saying that we need to look at this particular practice and see how it can be improved. Why? Because allowances keep going up. And the number of allowances is costing or is a big pull on the budget. So I think this is something that we're serious about and we want to make sure that we do the proper analysis."
