HALIFAX – The Liberal government wiped out the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism as a part of it’s restructuring plan, and will create a new Department of Business.
Julia Sable is one of about 75 people who lost their jobs at the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism where she worked as a Corporate Strategist.
“I think that everyone in my group was pretty honest and straight forward in saying that I don’t think anybody knew this was coming, including the front line staff or the middle staff or even a fair bit of the senior management,” she said.
“I think they really kept it quite secret.”
There was a quick meeting called and within an hour all employees were shown the door. “We had members today escorted out of the workplaces,” says NSGEU President Joan Jessome.
“Certainly it’s going to impact people in the metro area,” she adds.
“I think I feel sad,” says Sable, “It’s surprising to be laid off like this. I understand that the government is facing serious fiscal reality, so in some sense I know. I guess we just weren’t expecting to lose our jobs, en masse.”
Sable says hopefully some of the employees will get employment with the new Department of Business.
“I think that the people who had to deliver this news to us genuinely felt quite bad. You know, they didn’t enjoy giving us this news and they’re going to try and find positions,” she said.
“There’s some vacant positions they said they were holding for a couple of months, so they could try to move us into other positions and they offered us various forms of support and they are offering us pay and severance packages.”
Sable had only been working at her position for three months.
- ‘Shock and disbelief’ after Manitoba school trustee’s Indigenous comments
- ‘Super lice’ are becoming more resistant to chemical shampoos. What to use instead
- Is home ownership only for the rich now? 80% say yes in new poll
- Invasive strep: ‘Don’t wait’ to seek care, N.S. woman warns on long road to recovery
Comments