After the Province tabled its provincial budget this past Tuesday, a number of MGEU members have started wondering how the announcements in the budget will impact their jobs.

As MGEU President Lois Wales said earlier this week, one of the main concerns for the MGEU in this budget is the decrease in spending by approximately $128 million.

“Those savings need to come from somewhere,” said Wales. “Our fear is that we’re going to see what we’ve seen in the past: not filling job vacancies when they arise and not replacing workers when they retire.”

The other significant announcements that we know will affect MGEU members will be the merger of Regional Health Authorities (moving from 11 to five RHAs) and the merger between Manitoba Lotteries and the Manitoba Liquor Commission into one Crown Corporation.

Here’s what we know so far about both of these mergers:

Manitoba Liquor Control Commission and Manitoba Lotteries

The new Crown Corporation will be called the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation.

On budget day, the Minister of Finance announced no job losses for front line employees in the process of making administrative efficiencies. As well, a new labour management committee is being created to ensure a smooth transition and MGEU Staff Representative, Dale Neal will be on this committee.

Legislative changes will be made to produce a new Act for the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation (MLLC) and a professional consulting firm will be hired to review the inner workings of both organizations and assist in the amalgamation. Until the recommendations on a plan for amalgamation are complete, both Manitoba Lotteries and Manitoba Liquor Control Commission will continue to operate as they do today.

It is expected that once the recommendations from the consulting firm are complete, the process of amalgamating will take almost a year to conclude.

Members who currently work in liquor regulation will not be moving over to the new Crown Corporation. Instead, those employees will be combined with gaming regulation, creating the new Manitoba Gaming and Liquor Control Commission. Changes will also be made to the Gaming Control Act to incorporate liquor control into the act. The Province says "this will reduce red tape for Manitoba businesses by bringing inspection and other regulatory services into a one-stop shop."

Regional Health Authorities

The Province is reducing the number of Regional Health Authorities from 11 to five, and in the process they say they “will protect the front lines of health care.” To that end the Province has assured the MGEU and all of the other health care unions in Manitoba that there will be no front line job losses as a result of this merger.

The first RHA mergers could be formalized in the next few weeks and all of the RHAs should be formally merged by this fall. New CEOs and boards will be named soon.

Documents the Province produced for the budget say that “by merging RHAs, the government expects to eliminate 30 to 35 executive positions and more than half of the RHA boards, directing more money into supporting Manitoba’s hospitals, QuickCare Clinics and access centres.”

The changes include…
- A new Western Health Region comprised of the current Assiniboine, Brandon and Parkland RHAs;
- A new Northern Health Region comprised of the current Burntwood and NOR-MAN RHAs;
- A new Southern Health Region comprised of the current Central and South Eastman RHAs;
- A new Eastern Health Region comprised of the current Interlake and North Eastman RHAs; and
- Merging the Winnipeg and Churchill RHAs.

“This is what they have said and we will hold them to it, if needed,” says Wales. “Their indications to us are that no MGEU members will lose their jobs as a result of these mergers. The MGEU will make sure that what they’ve said this past Tuesday will continue to hold true over the next few years.”

The changes are expected to save $10 million over a three-year period. The Government is creating a "Labour Relations Working Group" to help work through the mergers collaboratively. In the next few months the government will be launching public consultations about the new local health involvement groups and how RHAs can work more closely with local communities and patients.

It's unclear how the changes will affect the MGEU’s Local structure, which can’t be done until all of the mergers have been implemented.

“It’s important for members to remember that most of what people might be hearing in their workplace is simply rumour and speculation at this point. We’ve outlined exactly what we know to date, anything more than that is simply not accurate. As more information becomes available on these mergers, it will be posted here on mgeu.ca.”

UPDATE on RHA Mergers - April 25, 2012

As of April 24, all Manitoba regional health authority (RHA) boards approved the government's proposal to reduce the number of authorities to five from 11, enabling the province to take the next steps in the merger process.

The boards are forwarding their approvals to Manitoba Health to support required amendments to regulations under the Regional Health Authorities Act enabling the mergers. This should be in place by the end of May.

Once the new regions are in place, a temporary interim board will be established in each region to begin the work of the region including appointing the new chief executive officer.

Permanent boards, composed of members of the existing RHA boards, will be appointed soon after, ensuring the requisite skills, experience, diversity and geographic representation are in place to govern the new regions as they move forward.

Until the new regions are formally created and new CEOs and boards are in place, the current 11 RHAs continue to operate to ensure uninterrupted health services.