Job cuts part of defence shakeup
New structure merges chains of command
OTTAWA— The defence department is shaking up the way it manages missions across Canada and around the world as it pares staff in headquarters and across the military to meet Conservative budget cuts.
About 1,100 civilian defence workers were among the first to get hit by federal belt-tightening as they got notice their jobs are being eliminated. Quebec is being hit hardest with 345 jobs being cut. The defence department is cutting 175 positions in Ontario, including 28 in Toronto.
And a shakeup is in the works to merge separate chains of command into one with the goal of cutting defence headquarters staff in Ottawa by 25 per cent.
Canada Command, responsible for military operations across the country, will be merged with Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, which oversees the work of Canadian troops overseas, along with the Canadian Operational Support Command.
The new structure will be known as the Canadian Joint Operations Headquarters, a source told the Star Wednesday.
“The idea is to achieve a 25 per cent efficiency in Ottawa and that’s one of the ways you can do it, by folding them together,” the source said.
While each section will still be headed by a general, the goal is to pare the staff that had grown around each command since they were created in 2006 during former Gen. Rick Hillier’s time as head of the military. At the time, the changes were meant to better integrate the three branches of the armed forces — air force, navy and army. The latest changes, which will take effect by summer, are now being pitched to make the command more efficient. The result will be a “more normal headquarters structure instead of separate warlords,” the source said. The merger will also reduce the number of reservists who have been pressed into full-time service to perform headquarters work. “That is going to end,” the source said. In the Commons, Defence Minister Peter Mackay defended the reduction as a necessary step now that Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan has been scaled back. “We are now focused on the reorientation of our staff and our other resources to the long-term,” he said. The fallout of last week’s budget, which sets in motion measures to cut 19,200 government jobs, is only just beginning as departments roll out their job reduction plans over the coming weeks. The largest public service workers’ union says the Harper government is hiding the size of government job cuts and the impact on Canadians’ programs and services. As federal employees were receiving notices of job reductions Wednesday, Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) executive Patty Ducharme said the government needs to tell the public what to expect from the spending cuts in the March 29 federal budget. “The government must provide Canadians with a clear department-by-department accounting of exactly what services are going to be cut — where, when and how,” Ducharme said.
She said Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is laying off employees but is not providing public information on where the cuts are falling. It will be months, or possibly years, before Canadians learn the impact of the Conservatives’ move to scale back federal spending and the size of the government. She also said cuts to Transport Canada, which oversees air safety, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and departments that regulate the environment may be putting Canadians at risk.
The union says the government’s estimate of job cuts is grossly understating employment reductions introduced by the Conservatives.
When job cuts set in motion by earlier rounds of expenditure reduction and a freeze on personnel spending are taken into account, the total of positions being lost is closer 35,000.