Yesterday, the Manitoba government announced that it was “merging” some regional offices and restructuring others in the name of “efficiency.” The Province claims this will “streamline service delivery” and will save approximately $1.5 million annually.
Departments immediately affected include Infrastructure and Transportation, Conservation and Water Stewardship, Entrepreneurship, Training and Trade, and Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives.
The province calls the move a “consolidation” but what’s really happening, of course, is offices are being closed. Employees are being moved to other locations – some will now have to commute over 100 kilometres to their new workplaces – and existing staff will likely be expected to take on greater responsibilities.
As a result, the MGEU met with government officials yesterday to express its concern that these perceived “efficiencies” are not worth the stress they place on communities and provincial employees.
“With the high vacancy rate in the civil service right now our members are already doing more with less and now they’re going to have to commute further, in some cases much further, to do their jobs,” said MGEU President Michelle Gawronsky.
Closing these rural offices also means that small-town local economies will lose valuable jobs.
“Coming from a small-town, I can tell you first-hand how I’ve seen communities hit hard when jobs are lost,” says Gawronsky. “This seems like a lot of unnecessary change, given the projected savings. I guess at the end of the day, it’s the average Manitoban who will pay the price for reduced services in the name of ‘efficiency.’”
On a practical level, the union has also expressed concerns that some of the new offices members will be moving to just won’t have enough space to work.
“Some of these offices were designed to have two or three people working in them. Now they’ll have 5 or 6,” says Gawronsky.