Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, confirmed his union was notified by the department that surplus notices would be going out this week. They are fallout from the department’s announcement last August that it would be cutting or reassigning 776 people — which is about 10 per cent of the workforce.
But Corbett said the department is under “strict orders” not to reveal precisely what work these surplus scientists are doing. They broadly include engineers, scientists, biologists, climatologists, and chemical analysts from across the country, including 18 or so in the national capital region. They work in areas such as pollution, monitoring water quality, and climate research.
“This exercise is all about money and a government obsessed with the bottom line,” said Corbett.
“While the government pays lip service to protecting the interests of all Canadians, it continues to target science-based departments, the front line, when it comes to protecting our environment and health of our citizens,” he said.
Not all surplus employees may end up losing their jobs. They could be needed elsewhere and be promised a “reasonable job offer.” Those without such an offer, however, have three options — they can collect a cash payments based on years of service; get an education allowance for retraining, or go on the priority list for a year in hopes of landing a job elsewhere in the public service.
Last summer, Environment Canada told unions that 300 of the 776 affected employees would likely lose their jobs and the rest would be reassigned. PIPSC represents about 229 of the 776 originally alerted in the summer that their jobs would change or disappear. Until this latest batch of notices, about 16 scientists had been declared surplus.
PIPSC officials said the first casualties were the term and casual employees because they are the easiest and cheapest to unload. The department eliminated about 150 term positions and about 400 casual jobs by trimming or reducing funding for its various sunset programs, which are funded for limited duration.
Corbett argued that term employees are typically the young blood and new generation of workers and reducing them at the same time as getting rid of experienced workers is a double whammy.
“You are destroying the future of the public service by getting rid of the knowledge base for the future,” he said … Who is going to be protecting Canadians? It won’t be industry.”
But the big worry is that these cuts are just the beginning. The big cuts are yet to come as departments brace for reductions in the upcoming budget, which could mean cuts of five per cent, 10 per cent or even more from operating budgets.
Departments were ordered to prepare two proposals to help reduce the deficit, one with five per cent cuts and another with 10 per cent reductions. Departments have long been braced for the government to opt for 10-per-cent reductions as a minimum, but Finance Minister James Flaherty said this week that some departments could face cuts exceeding 10 per cent as part of the government’s sweeping spending review.
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