A recently published blog by the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives (CCPA) compared consulting engineering fees in the transportation industry with public employees’ wages. As the association representing the consulting engineering industry, the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Saskatchewan (ACEC-SK) feels compelled to point out the inaccuracies in this article and set the record straight.

The article provides examples of Public Employee wages, including benefits, and compares them to Consulting fees obtained from Ministry contracts by the CCPA and the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union (SGEU) through freedom of information requests .  The blog’s author implies that Consulting fees are what consultants’ staff are paid as wages, and uses this comparison to conclude Consultants are paid significantly more than Public Employees.

However, staff wages and consulting fees are not the same thing, and therefore this conclusion is inaccurate. Consulting fees, not wages, are paid to consulting companies.  Just like any other business in Saskatchewan, the fees these companies are paid for their services pay for individual wages and benefits as well as  overhead costs such as the lease or mortgage on a building, telephone systems, computers and peripherals, heat, electricity, property taxes, insurance, training and support services such as human resources, information technology, accounting and legal.

The government also incurs overhead costs, and these will rise with the number of employees hired, but the article does not reference the overhead costs when looking at the full costs of Public Employees.  This is why it is inaccurate to compare consulting fees to public employee wages, even when employee benefits are taken into consideration.

The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Saskatchewan has supported, and continues to support, a balance between using consultants and public employees to deliver value for the taxpayers of Saskatchewan.

Consulting engineering companies in Saskatchewan employ approximately 2000 professional, technical and support staff, and indirectly contribute just under $2 billion annually to the Saskatchewan economy.