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Fisheries finances migrate to Fredericton

Consolidation, outsourcing of research as cuts enforced

By: Mia Rabson and Alexandra Paul

Posted: 07/12/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

The federal government is outsourcing water-contaminant research. (JEFF DE BOOY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

OTTAWA -- Employees at the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg are bracing for more job cuts and the outsourcing of scientific research after a deputy minister visited the office bearing bad news earlier this week.

A source from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said deputy minister Claire Dansereau was at the Freshwater Institute on the University of Manitoba campus Monday for a town hall with employees to update them on plans for the department.

She said the finance functions of the department would be consolidated in Fredericton, which is the home riding of Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield.

She also said research on water contaminants would be outsourced.

The source suggested that means Canada plans to purchase data on the issue from outside the country and apply it to policy decision-making in Canada. The source said most scientists fear the focus is going to be on exploiting the environment rather than protecting it.

About 30 of the estimated 300 staff at the institute have already been given layoff notices. Others are bracing for the dreaded "affected notice" -- the bureaucratic term for the letter that says their job has been declared surplus and their future employment is in jeopardy.

Those receiving such notices normally have a few months to make a decision about taking a severance package or trying to find a job somewhere else in government. In some cases, employees are forced to compete against one another for jobs that remain after cuts take place.

Fisheries employees say certain sections within the department have been "decimated," including environmental habitat protection, which lost 48 of 63 positions.

In Winnipeg, jobs were also cut in research related to the Species at Risk Act and the effect of pesticides on fish.

As of next year, Ottawa is cutting its $2-million annual funding to the unique research program at the Experimental Lakes Area near Kenora, Ont.

In the recent budget-implementation bill, the federal government made sweeping changes to numerous federal acts affecting fisheries, including reducing the size, scope and number of environmental reviews of projects that may affect fish habitat.

A Fisheries spokesman said consolidating the six finance offices in Fredericton would save $2 million but he couldn't comment on the impact on Winnipeg.

"As part of the department's commitment to reducing government spending, we feel that this is a great example of eliminating duplication and streamlining back offices into one location rather than six," Frank Stanek wrote in an email.

He said the federal government will develop an advisory group on contaminants research and a $1.4-million annual research fund "to work with academia and other independent facilities to get advice on priority issues and ensure departmental priorities are met."

NDP fisheries critic Robert Chisholm said it is questionable Ashfield's riding of Fredericton will benefit from so-called budget efficiencies. About a dozen finance jobs are to move to Fredericton from other regions.

When asked if he thought the location of the new jobs is suspicious, Chisholm replied: "Ya think?"

Chisholm said he knows contaminant researchers from fisheries in B.C. have already been laid off so it is not surprising the government is looking to privatize that kind of research.

"The government of Canada has a constitutional responsibility to protect fish and fish habitat," said Chisholm.

"To try and farm that out to the private sector just doesn't make any sense."

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 12, 2012 A6

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