Forest ministry officials preparing to implement deep cuts

At a recent labour-management meeting, Ministry of Forestry officials outlined plans to implement a 12 per cent budget cut in 2009/10, including the elimination of 230 full time positions.

At the June 24 meeting, the Ministry told the union they are unsure of exactly what cards they will be dealt by the new Liberal budget, due Sept. 1. But they are preparing to implement a cut of $96 million by March 31, 2010.

The cuts would come from a combination of the 230 job cuts, reduced spending, rejigging functions such as compliance & enforcement to work ‘smarter' and cheaper, and collaborating with other ministries on spending items such as road engineering.

Ministry officials say their goal is to not have any current employee pushed out of work. They are pursuing this through normal attrition, filling only critical vacancies, filling those vacancies internally, deleting as many vacancies as possible, and using lateral transfers-including to other ministries-using the Opportunities and Skills Database.

While layoffs from the job cuts may be minimized, BCGEU remains concerned about:
• the permanent shrinkage and loss of valuable services provided by the forest ministry;
• potential for impossible workloads for remaining staff; and
• the economic impact of job losses on forestry communities that are already hurting from the downturn in the economy.

The union will continue to communicate with the Ministry about how the cuts will be implemented. We will be meeting again soon after the Sept. 1 budget is tabled, and we will keep you informed of developments. We will be pushing to limit any layoffs, and will be ready to defend your placement rights should any layoffs occur.