Thursday, May 27, 2010

B.C. government lays off more civil servants

Rob Shaw, timescolonist.com May 27, 2010

Victoria, B.C. - The B.C. government has issued layoff notices to 42 workers in its forests ministry, as it continues to downsize the civil service in the wake of budget cutbacks. “As I indicated in April, it is necessary for the ministry to proceed with a final workforce adjustment process to meet our 3 year budget reduction targets. Today, we are notifying 42 employees in our ministry that their positions have been impacted,” wrote Dana Hayden, deputy forests minister, in a message to staff Thursday morning. “This is a very difficult time for all staff, but in particular for those receiving notice letters. For employees who are receiving letters, please know there are many people and services available to support you through this difficult time.” It is the second time in six weeks government has cut jobs as it grapples with deficit projections until 2013. Government laid off 294 public service workers in April. Of that, 204 were in the Forests Ministry and 38 were in the Integrated Land Management Bureau. The remaining 52 positions were in the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources.

As a result of the cuts, the Forests Ministry announced it would close its small, underutilized Prince Rupert office. At the time, the ministry signaled more layoffs were planned to meet future budget targets. Thursday’s layoffs should be the last of those layoffs, wrote Hayden. “While the Ministry of Forests must unfortunately implement this final round of workforce adjustments, I am pleased to say that this is the final one the ministry will have to do as long as our three-year budget remains the same.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rather than laying off the 42 service provider workers, why don't they lay off like 3 or 4 senior bureaucrats instead. Much more cost-effective, I'd say.

Anonymous said...

When is the City of Vernon going to get the message and start some "lay offs"