The written notices are going to employees who work in the seven regions where the department operates. More than 200 of those receiving notices are biologists and other scientists and the vast majority work outside the capital in areas of ocean management, fish habitat management, hydrography and aquaculture. Another 39 positions are being cut from the Coast Guard following a re-organization.
It’s unclear how many of those “affected” will end up losing their jobs. Officials from one of the unions representing workers say they are braced for between 150 and 280 jobs to permanently disappear. Cutting jobs in the regions is always a dicey political decision compared to slashing jobs in Ottawa where job growth outpaced the regions over the decade.
Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said he’s disappointed at the timing of the notices comes so close to Christmas, but fears these cuts are just the beginning.
“The cuts are going to be followed shortly by more cuts after the budget. Tell me, how a science-based department survives with a cut of a couple of hundred scientists. How can the department continue to do what it is supposed to do. It has to give somewhere. You can’t keep cutting, cutting, cutting.”
The cuts aren’t totally unexpected. The department’s top bureaucrats braced the department for further reductions in an October letter that updated staff on the rollout of its strategic review.
The letter, signed by Deputy Minister Claire Dansereau and two other senior executives, outlined a “dynamic change agenda” that will transform the way the department works. It outlined a series of changes to streamline and modernize its programs, services and business practices.
“More savings are expected in the future,” said the letter.
“We will be phasing in these and other change initiatives over three years to allow time for the department, employees and stakeholders to adjust. We are confident that the cumulative effects of these measures over the long-term will be positive, helping us to improve the quality, relevance and effectiveness of the department’s programs and services.”
DFO was among the 12 departments that underwent strategic review last year to find savings and realign spending with the government’s priorities. Fisheries found savings of $9.1 million for 2011-2012; $18.9 million in 2012-13 and will reach $56.8 million for 2013-14.
Since then, the Conservatives launched their deficit-reduction push to balance the budget by trimming $4 billion from $80 billion in operating budgets within three years. Departments were ordered to deliver two proposals, one for five per cent reductions and 10 per cent cuts. Many bureaucrats are girded for the government to opt for the 10-per-cent proposals as a minimum.
Employees who receive notices today won’t necessarily be laid off. Some of the cuts could be managed by attrition, others could be retrained or find other jobs in other parts of DFO or in a different region before having to look for jobs in other departments. Employees whose work discontinues are protected by provisions of the workforce adjustment directive in their collective agreements.
Some say the 400 affected jobs don’t reflect all the changes that officials outlined in the October letter.
Alan Phillips, a PIPSC representative in the Atlantic Region, said the big changes include decisions to shift from annual reviews of fish stocks to multi-year cyclical stock assessments; web-based programs for fishing licenses; shifting the focus of science research in aquaculture to regulatory and turning over responsibility some habitat assessments to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
Among scientists, the most worrisome cuts are in habitat management, especially the move to risk-based assessment to reduce red tape and regulation.
The department is also moving to a “ecosystems approach to science” with more emphasis on scientists working in teams to tackle “complex inter-related issues affecting fish, fish habitat and the integrity of aquatic environments,” said the October letter.
The department has a nearly $2 billion budget with 11,025 employees in seven regions — 22 per cent in the Pacific; 17 per cent in the Maritimes, 16 per cent in the National Capital region, 16 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador; 13 per cent in Quebec, 12 per cent in Central and Arctic and four per cent in the Gulf Region.
DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES AND OCEANS: AT A GLANCE
■ The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has a budget of nearly $2 billion
■ It employs 11,025 people in seven regions
■ 22 per cent work in the Pacific region
■ 17 per cent in the Maritimes
■ 16 per cent in the National Capital Region
■ 16 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador
■ 13 per cent in Quebec
■ 12 per cent in Central and Arctic
■ Four per cent in the Gulf Region
Origin
Source: Ottawa Citizen
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