Wednesday, May 13, 2009

CSE is growing -- again!

DND's 2009-2010 Report on Plans and Priorities indicates that CSE is back in another growth period, the fourth major expansion in its 63-year history. The report projects that CSE will grow from an average size of 1635 full-time equivalents (FTEs) in 2008-09 to 1817 FTEs in 2011-12, an increase of 150-200 staff members. And since the projection doesn't go any further than 2011-12, it is not clear that the increase is going to stop at 1817. Next year's report may answer that question.

Interestingly, I speculated about a year and a half ago that CSE might be headed to a staff of 1800 or more based on information in earlier Reports on Plans and Priorities. That growth failed to materialize, but maybe it was only delayed for a couple of years and the plan is now back on track.

The record of previous expansions can be reviewed here.

A recent article by David Pugliese ("Privatization threatens jobs at spy agency: As many as 200 CSE positions at risk," Ottawa Citizen, 8 May 2009) reports that CSE plans to privatize as many as 200 positions at the agency (CSE says a maximum of 130) over the next several years. The privatized positions would include jobs such as facility maintenance and IT support. It is not clear what effect this plan would have on the overal FTE numbers mentioned above.

The Union of National Defence Employees, which represents CSE employees, is not happy about the plan.

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