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The Alberta government’s bottom line continues to bleed red ink and the province is planning job cuts and a wage freeze for civil-service managers to try to stem the flow.
1 a' d ?. m6 MTory Finance Minister Doug Horner announced plans Tuesday for a three-year management salary freeze. It is to begin April 1 and is expected to save taxpayers $54 million. & @ j% F; e' A
) U/ \; L, p' c2 c) V. TThe government is also reducing the number of public-sector managers by 10 per cent, or about 480 positions, over that same time period, he said. While some positions are vacant and won’t be filled, there will be some people who lose their jobs.
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He blamed falling oil and gas revenue. Premier Alison Redford has coined the term bitumen bubble to refer to the difference between the benchmark prices for oil in North America and the lower price Alberta receives for its land-locked oilsands bitumen. . I, h/ W! A- X
0 B# r$ ?7 O' U! sIn the first nine months of the 2012-13 fiscal year, Horner said resource revenue was $2.4 billion lower than expected.
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7 n9 p; }0 J) F- J) E M: U“The government is taking decisive, aggressive and immediate action to help address this revenue shortfall,” Horner said as he released the province’s third-quarter fiscal update.
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“We can’t control world market prices but we can make decisions that will make an impact on our bottom.6 a' _9 J' g+ E5 S5 W
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“It’s costing us a lot of money. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the third quarter and to be honest it’s not getting all that prettier,” he added.9 U! E, ]% q* N1 O2 X
# y X3 [7 T6 P* U0 hAlberta is now forecasting a deficit of between $3.5 and $4 billion in 2012-13 — at least four times what was originally predicted in the last budget.
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Horner will deliver the 2013-14 budget March 7. He didn’t rule out further job cuts to the rank-and-file within Alberta’s public sector. y0 a! o' B- E; M' s
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“Nothing is off the table,” he said. “The upcoming provincial budget focuses on making the tough but thoughtful decisions necessary to allow the province to continue to deliver on its priorities.”
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The head of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees said talk of layoffs and wage freezes in the public sector is “short-sighted.”
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" _/ \" n1 l3 z6 M+ k“Government staffing levels haven’t increased since the mid-1990s while the province has added a million people. Employees are stretched as it is,” said union president Guy Smith.
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“I question the wisdom of freezing wages, cutting public-sector jobs, and reducing services at the same time demand is increasing.”) W# i6 q* b0 H; H" ~4 A- J7 }( z
6 S7 ]+ d- O" B W: NBut the management cuts were not enough for the Opposition Wildrose party. Leader Danielle Smith suggested middle management ranks need to be thinned by half.
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- R, `4 Y z: {0 N8 f0 T8 u“It seems to me with what they’re putting forward here that this is window dressing,” she said. “The budget that was put forward last year is totally unravelling. We knew it did not contain projections that were remotely achievable.”
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楼主: 老杨
19167 加币现金
狗仔卡
发表于 2013-2-22 22:36
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