The merging of two GNWT departments would likely lead to job cuts, says cabinet minister Wally Schumann.
Last week, the territorial government unveiled a proposal that would see the departments of transportation and public works merge to form a single department of infrastructure.
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In a statement, the government said it’s working on ‘organizational restructuring’ proposals as part of its ongoing efforts to ensure it remains on a fiscally sustainable path.
While the proposals have been reflected in draft business plans that have been shared with legislative committees, the earliest any merger could take effect is April.
“We took a proactive approach to our fiscal responsibility and felt that this was one of the initiatives that we needed to do to get our revenues and expenditures in line,” Schumann told Moose FM.
Asked if a merger would lead to any cuts, Schumann didn’t rule anything out – admitting there are redundancies across departments.
“We don’t know that yet,” Schumann said of how many cuts there might be.
“We’re still doing our analysis on all this and how we’re going to put these two departments together. But there are a lot of similarities between the departments.”
Together, the two departments employ over 600 people.
Employees who would be impacted by any potential changes have already been notified of the proposal. Should there be any cuts, Schumann is hopeful they’d be kept to a minimum.
