Photo by Emily Keller

By Shaun Penner

City Hall

Job cuts at City Hall include 16 layoffs

Nov 20, 2019 | 2:32 PM

Grande Prairie’s City Manager says not all of Tuesday’s announced re-structured positions were layoffs.

Following Tuesday’s announcement on Twitter by the City that over 40 staff positions were affected by the move, Horacio Galanti says less than half of those involved current staff members being laid off.

“When you combine our restructuring and the positions affected by budget, in total the layoffs were 16 positions. The remaining (ones) are vacant and we are not planning to fill them in the near future.”

Other ways were used to arrive at the job cuts as well.

“We’re combining jobs. We’re bundling even some departments together under one, like an umbrella manager,” adds Galanti.

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Most of the jobs cut were middle and upper management positions.

Galanti says these were tough moves to make.

“We acknowledge this is a difficult time for all of us, affected employees, and families. We have to live within our means and the reality in the city today and, generally, within the province, is different compared with years ago, so we have to adapt and take sometimes these tough decisions to live within our means.”

Galanti says that this decision to re-structure was one made by management and is independent of Council and the Mayor.

The City saw a reduction of $2-million dollars in funding from the province. Galanti says the city will also be watching the next provincial budget, due in the spring, and possible unionization of the RCMP.