Province Releases Details About Northern Job Cuts

Province Releases Details About Northern Job Cuts

Friday, April 02, 2004 at 14:29

The provincial government says 30 northerners within Saskatchewan Environment were handed layoff notices this week as a result of the budget cuts.

A total of 19 Environment workers in La Ronge received their pink slips as part of the department’s decision to close down its La Ronge bureau.

The affected personnel include conservation officers, customer service reps and field specialists.

There were also positions eliminated in 8 other northern communities — some of which will also see their Environment offices shut down.

It’s still unclear how fire suppression personnel will be affected in the department’s reorganization of its wildfire management program.

Fire caches in Ile-a-la-Crosse, La Loche, Pinehouse, Cumberland House, Wollaston Lake and Uranium City will be shut down and remain as staging areas, but it sounds like most of the fire suppression personnel that will be affected are seasonal workers — and Environment spokesman Alan Parkinson says the full impact won’t be known until the fire season is here.

Northern Affairs minister Buckley Belanger says Environment minister David Forbes has agreed to come to the North later this month to meet with northern leaders who are concerned with all these changes.