The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) has cut 168 full time positions, which includes 92 exempt positions and 76 CUPE positions.
Forty-six of the 168 positions eliminated were vacant, this makes the number of staff receiving lay-off notices around 122.
Senior leadership positions have been reduced from 25 to 12 and some departments have been combined to improve efficiency.
The one time severance costs are estimated at $2.3 million for exempt employees.
CUPE members also have the option to take severance and that figure is unknown at this time.
The cuts are not expected to impact the recovery and rebuild of the community.
These lay-offs spanned across different areas of the RMWB and the finance department was the most affected.
“The organizational realignment has involved reducing layers of management, combining departments and consolidating services where it makes sense. This is just the first step in adjusting to our new fiscal environment,” said Annette Antoniak, Interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).
Fifty-two per cent of the operating budget is staffing, which Antoniak said was naturally the first place to look.
This organizational realignment reduces the RMWB’s annual operating costs by $24.2 million and over five years the RMWB will see savings of $121 million.
CAO and RMWB staff will finalize the 2017 Operating Budget and the 2018-2019 Financial Plan to present to council by the end of the first quarter of 2017.
“There will be no more cuts, this a one time realignment,” said Antoniak. “Our goal through the realignment and budgeting process is to improve the level of service we provide to the public, while ensuring essential service like emergency response and recovery are not affected.”
The economic downturn in the oil sands will continue to have an impact on the region, as well as recovery from the wildfire and the potential impacts of Bill 21.
The Municipality will continue to work closely with industry and stakeholders in the region to define the strategy, scope, time frame, and monitoring process for transitioning to Bill 21.
There is a grandfathering clause in the proposed legislation now but future regulations could require the RMWB to reduce their tax ratio.
