Parks Canada notifies staff of impending job cuts

Parks Canada has notified employees it is entering a 'period of workforce adjustment.' Photo by Lorraine Payette /Postmedia files

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Parks Canada has notified staff it is entering a “period of workforce adjustment” and will be cutting jobs in multiple waves.

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In a June 5 email to staff, interim president and CEO Andrew Campbell informed employees the agency was modernizing how it delivers programs to meet spending targets set by the government.

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“Through this work, some activities will be adjusted, scaled back or discontinued, and the number of positions required to deliver certain programs and services will be reduced,” the letter read.

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“Given the scale of the required savings, I have been clear that attrition alone will not be enough to meet our targets.”

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Employees whose jobs are affected have already been notified, the email said. It did not, however, include the number of workforce adjustment notices issued to workers or the number of targeted full-time job cuts.

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Parks Canada did not immediately respond to questions from the Ottawa Citizen.

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The cuts will be progressing in phases, the email said.

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The “first phase” of cuts, which the agency has now entered, responds to spending reductions identified in the government’s “Responsible Government Spending Initiative.”

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The second phase of cuts responds to spending reductions under the “comprehensive expenditure review” outlined in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal budget. Announcements related to those cuts will take place later this year.

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“I recognize that this is not easy news,” Campbell wrote. “This kind of change can affect both people and teams, as well as the work we care deeply about.”

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According to a recent planning document, Parks Canada is committed to spending reductions under the comprehensive expenditure review totalling more than $140 million over the next three fiscal years.

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The agency intends to meet those spending cuts by eliminating non-essential programs and reducing the frequency or scope of some activities, particularly at sites with fewer visitors.

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The comprehensive expenditure review is the government’s plan to find $60 billion in savings over five years from the operational budgets of most departments and agencies.

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Workforce adjustment is a process that ensures alternative employment opportunities will be made available, where possible, for permanent public servants who lose their positions.

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Through the process, public servants who receive workforce adjustment notices could have opportunities to trade places with employees who want to leave (in what’s called alternation) to compete for positions.

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The federal government is maintaining an online portal that tracks the number of workforce adjustment letters and planned public service job cuts under the comprehensive expenditure review.

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The tracker currently lists a target of about 17,000 full time jobs targeted to be cut under the review. Separate agencies, such as Parks Canada, are not listed as they are not considered part of the core public administration.

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