As many as 11,700 public-service employees will lose their jobs in British Columbia over the next three years after Premier Gordon Campbell swung his cost-cutting axe yesterday across the province.
Mr. Campbell described the Liberal government's outline for the biggest purge of the civil service in B.C.'s history as "thoughtful and innovative."
"It is reasonable," Mr. Campbell told reporters at a news conference in Victoria, where he was flanked by glum-faced cabinet ministers on the day of the anxiously awaited announcement dubbed Black Thursday.
"It is responsible. It is the right thing to do."
The government plans to eliminate 3,300 public-service jobs and at least 1,500 of the workers will be involuntarily laid off by March of next year.
"We are trying to do that in a humane and thoughtful way," said Mr. Campbell. "I don't want there to be any illusions. Some people will have to be laid off and it will be involuntary."
The government says it will save $1.9-billion over three years by taking the drastic measures it outlined for the first time yesterday, to achieve its election promise of balancing the budget by the 2004-2005 fiscal year.
The cuts were swift and deep, with one-third of B.C.'s estimated 34,000 public servants to be affected in every ministry. Some departments' staff levels will be cut by more than half. The Transportation Ministry, which oversees maintenance of the provinces' roads and highways, for example, will lose more than 61 per cent of its workforce, with more than 1,400 people expected to lose their jobs.
The impact will be felt in communities across the province.
The government plans to:
Close one-third of the province's courthouses, shutting down 24 of 68. Eight provincial jails including Alouette River Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge and Terrace Community Correctional Centre will shut down, as well as the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
Review a tuition freeze on postsecondary education, in place since 1995-96, meaning the government could raise tuition fees for university and college students.
Eliminate 854 Health Ministry employees, including 37 paramedics, over three years.
Discontinue bus-pass subsidies for low-income seniors and the disabled, and take single mothers with children older than 3 off the welfare rolls.
Eliminate one-third, a total of 401 full-time jobs, in the department of Water, Land and Air protection (previously known as the Environment Ministry) over three years. The ministry will also discontinue responses to low-risk environmental spills as well as what was described as "response to low-risk human-wildlife conflicts."
As many as 3,500 of the 11,700 employees could be transferred to other departments in the massive restructuring, said officials, but there was no guarantee their government jobs will be spared. And there were suggestions that some public services could be privatized.
"We are not shy about the private sector delivering public services in a cost-effective way," Mr. Campbell said.
The province has said it won't touch $9.5-billion in its health-care budget but there are changes to program delivery.
Adults have to pay for routine eye exams while seniors will be subjected to a means test next year to determine how much they should have to pay for prescription drugs.
Mr. Campbell has also pledged not to cut the amount of money the province pays for education.
Finance Minister Gary Collins blamed the province's fiscal challenges on the previous NDP government, which the B.C. Liberals soundly defeated in an election last May. He denied the pressures were caused by a shortfall in the government revenue due to the government's income-tax cuts.
"B.C. is on the edge of becoming a have-not province," he said. "We didn't get there overnight."
There was angry reaction by public-sector employees across B.C. yesterday. Several protesters dressed as grim reapers protested outside Mr. Campbell's news conference carrying a sign that said Campbell's Cuts Are Too Deep.
Earlier yesterday, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Collins, who campaigned on a platform of accountability and tax cuts, beat a hasty retreat from the five-hour media lock-up when reporters insisted their comments be on the record. They wanted to make off-the-record statements about the cuts.
The government layoffs come as the unemployment rate in B.C. climbs and there are massive job losses in the province's forestry industry, attributed to the softwood lumber tariffs imposed by the United States.
Bart Cunningham, public-administration professor at the University of Victoria, said the cuts will be more deeply felt than the controversial restraint program of former Social Credit premier Bill Bennett in 1983.
"There has been no opposition," said Mr. Cunningham. "There has been no one saying stop."
The province has a 9.7-per-cent unemployment rate.