Nova Scotia should cut its civil service and use the savings to help dig itself out of debt, says businessman and former Ivany report commissioner John Bragg.

The province has 99 civil servants per 1,000 residents, well above the national average of 84 civil servants per 1,000 residents, Bragg said quoting a recent study prepared by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.

Bragg offered the advice during a keynote address at an institute function in Halifax Wednesday evening that marked the one-year anniversary of the release of what has become known as the Ivany report. Its official title is Now or Never: an urgent call to action for Nova Scotians.

“These are not easy issues to solve. They take fortitude and guts,” Bragg said.

This article appeared in the Chronicle Herald