Leef passes the buck on cuts
Mike Thomas/Yukon News
Due to budget cuts to Parks Canada, visitors will have to give themselves unguided tours of the S.S. Klondike in Whitehorse.
Yukon MP Ryan Leef says to not blame him for job cuts being felt across the territory.
Conservative members told federal officials how much to cut. But it’s up to individual departments to pick what jobs go, Leef said during an interview on Thursday.
Back in March, when the Conservative government announced its plan to cut more than 19,000 jobs over the next three years, Leef praised the proposed budget and promised that when it came to job cuts, with his former employer the RCMP at least, frontline services provided to the public would not see changes.
But when it came to cutting nearly a third of Parks Canada’s staff in the territory, for example, the frontline will be affected.
Starting next summer, Parks’ staff will no longer conduct search and rescue operations in Kluane National Park. Visitors will have to give themselves unguided tours of the S.S. Klondike and Dredge No. 4. And in the winter, they’ll have to break their own trail on ski paths now maintained by the federal department.
“It was up to the departments’ responsibility to provide the programs and services that they felt that they could make adjustments to,” Leef said. “I certainly said that I hoped the departments would look at the efficiencies, find out where they could achieve efficiencies in operations or administration, with limited to no effect on the frontline service.”
Parks Canada did trim jobs and salaries in management and administration, said Anne Morin, field unit superintendant for the Yukon. But the targets were just too big to spare frontline staff, she said.
The department also had to follow their agreement with the union. That means contract workers are cut first.
The cuts were also guided by the department’s plan to focus on the most popular places, in the most popular seasons, said Morin.
Summer is the peak tourism season, so ski trails are out. The S.S. Klondike and Dredge No. 4 may draw visitors, but they attract fewer than Dawson City.
And only one serious incident happens every two years at Kluane National Park, so visitors will have to assume responsibility to better plan their hikes and develop their survival skills.
But there is still a year until these changes are felt, said Leef. That’s enough time for him to help correct any cuts that Yukoners can’t live with, he said.
“We have to contribute to returning Canada to balanced budgets, Yukon has to play its role at that,” he said. “But on the same token, I don’t expect the Yukon to throw itself on the sword. If we have a legitimate case to be made that puts us in a unique and difficult position that’s above and beyond what other regions in the country are doing to contribute, then I’ll put that case forward and I’ll fight for it.
“Obviously, today, you’re going to have an emotional reaction to what’s going on and one which I completely understand. But I do need to look at the complete picture of this. It’s going to take a little bit of time but I’m certainly committed to moving forward with that.”
That’s probably little comfort to those who have lost their jobs. This summer, services to be cut will be handled by staff juggling other duties. The people who lost their jobs will already be gone by next year, said Morin.
Jobs cuts aren’t the only controversy created by the Conservative’s massive, 420-page omnibus budget bill. There’s also a plan to “streamline” environmental assessments in places where federal and local assessment bodies overlap.
The Yukon changed that years ago when it signed the Umbrella Final Agreement and created the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act and Board.
The territory’s review regime won’t be affected, said Leef - at least not directly and not right away.
“I think there are some mining and development companies that would like to see some changes,” said Leef. “Now, all of a sudden, every other province will have that one-review, one-timeframe process that will actually start working a little bit quicker than in the Yukon.”
But the assessment board continues to receive “nothing but favourable reviews,” said Stephen Mills, chair of the board.
Bigger projects take longer. But Mills is confident there will be no changes to how projects are assessed.
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10 Comments
@hardcorehenry: Where the heck did you get deregulation from? They’re cutting jobs not legislation.
Riptide’s suggestion was for third party review of spending in order to maximize services for dollars spent. Every large company in the private sector does this as throwing money away does not really make sense to anyone. Sadly, governments do not do this which is why budgets balloon and are unsustainable. I for one am glad to see the ‘throw more money at it’ attitude being curbed slightly.
good thinking jerry and riptide. it’s time to deregulate everything, go back to the US in the 80s and let private business take over. private business will know what to do.
Well said Jerry.
As for the idea that raising taxes would solve our issues… Raising taxes doesn’t really help much. We might bring in more money, however our economy is worse off for it.
Now it’s back to reality and balancing the budget (you know what most of us do every 2-4 weeks with our own finances). That means cutting spending - aka budgets (most likely jobs and services). Leef has the right idea. We would all like Government to be more effective… An outsider could likely come up with dozens of ways to save money… However sadly that’s never going to happen.
@ Dan
The part I quoted was not expanded on. It stated very clearly that some people seem to think the federal government should break ski trails for them rather than doing it themselves. What you are referring to is a separate subject entirely related only by the umbrella of budget cuts to overextended government spending.
Welcome to the Yukon. Can’t survive?...don’t go there. Or pay through the nose to have your hand held. Take your pick.
Jerry225, if you had read the entire article, you might have noted that the part you quoted eventually got expanded to “plan their hikes and develop their survival skills”. That’s a bit more than breaking trail.
I’m sure that if any member of the government were to plan a trip into Kluane, they’d get the same level of super-service that was expected for Mrs. Harper when she had her little getaway in Tombstone Park last summer. The money spent on that trip would have paid a salary or two here for a year or so.
Since when is something like “they’ll have to break their own trail on ski paths” a crisis that deserves federal recognition and action?
All I can hear is the entitlement generation rearing its ugly head when it gets rebuked.
This is just the beginng, wait until the real budget is announced. Oh well three years is not long to wait.
Unbelievable! His government spends like drunken sailors on self promotion, limousines, gazebo’s and other frippery but cut departments like they are the fluff they should be cutting out. And then, as per usual for this government, refuses to take any responsibility for anything distasteful or unpopular.
Ryan Leef is not a man of integrity apparently.
The very simplist, least painful, way to tackle the deficit would have been to put back the one percent of the GST that the government removed in an ill-timed decision just before the recession hit in 2008.
Wow he really has the “talk like a politician” thing down doesn’t he? By the way, loved Wyatt’s cartoon in this edition. One question: now that his honourableness has shot the beaver how does he intend on getting it out of the area?
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