Ten managers in the top ranks of Nova Scotia’s health department are being laid off as a result of restructuring.
The total number of layoffs and eliminated positions at the department was announced Tuesday, but no specifics on where the cuts were happening was given. Global News obtained more detailed information of some of the changes Friday and the government confirmed some of them.
Ten out of twenty layoffs are hitting upper management. The following is break down of the cuts:
- Two chiefs (out of six)
- Six executive directors (out of 13)
- One director
- One project executive
Another 13 directors are being moved out of the department to other units including the Nova Scotia Health Authority and the community, culture, and heritage department. Staff couldn’t tell Global News the total number of directors working in the health department but a 2014 organizational chart shows 22 directors.
“We’re trying to achieve better results, better health care for Nova Scotia, that means we have to do things differently, Deputy Minister Peter Vaughan said.
Among the positions that will no longer be in the health department is the position of the chief of program standards and quality.
“The roles are no longer relevant to the work of the department,” Vaughan said. He said the person in that position has the option of moving to a new position at the health authority.
Former health minister and current Interim NDP Leader Maureen MacDonald says the layoffs in the top branch of the department means its losing “far in excess of 100 years of experience combined.”
She says the shake up is a red flag because it means the department is losing the staff needed to hold the health authority to account. “What I see here is putting the fox in charge of the hen house by allowing the department to no longer have that monitoring, that oversight, that accountability function.”
However, Vaughan says last year’s health authorities merger forced the department to also rethink how it works with the health authority. “We set the goals, we make sure that they meet those goals, we have different roles but we work together,” he said.
New organization
Instead of the eight people currently reporting directly to Vaughan, only four newly titled “senior directors,” the associate deputy minister, and the chief public health officer will report to him under the new organizational structure that will be released in April.
The four senior directors will oversee four new “pillars,” Vaughan said. They will be called “decision support, system performance, corporate services, and client services and contract management.”
The restructuring will save the government $3.5 million in the next budget cycle.
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