New wave of job cuts in public service announced

The extent of public service cuts is gradually becoming known as employees receive notice that their jobs will be impacted by the government's spending cuts. This is the third wave of letters and involves six federal departments.

Even diplomats and embassy staff will be facing cuts. Four Canadian trade consulates in the U.S. and seven of 18 international trade offices in Canadian cities will shut their door as of next week.

Unions representing five other departments received notice of coming job cuts on Friday. The departments are: Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, Human Resources and Skills Development, Library and Archives Canada, Statistics Canada and Transport Canada.

The head of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees said:"These cuts are not necessary, but for ideological reasons only," The CAPE group represents 14,000 employees including economists,, statisticians, translators, and others.

These notices come just as the PSAC (Public Service Alliance of Canada) begins a week long convention in the capital Ottawa. The 500 plus delegates will be discussing the impact of the government cuts on their 172,000 members as well as electing new officers.

It is estimated that balancing the books by 2015-2016 as planned by the government will result in slow growth and the loss of 108,000 jobs. In the recent budget the government announced that it will cut 19,200 public service jobs over the next three years saving 5.2 billion dollars. Of course the costs that government might face through disasters caused by cutting in areas such as food inspection are not factored in! For more see this article.