The city of Montreal has announced a major job attrition program as part of a new five-year plan.
Mayor Denis Coderre wants to eliminate 2,200 positions from the city's payroll between now and 2018 .
The program would net the city $240 million in savings, he said, or around $2 billion over 10 years.
“Of course, if there’s some departments that if you empty all of (those workers), you’re going to say ‘tough luck, you just have a building,’ no, that’s not how it works. We will be smart, but the ratio will remain,” Coderre said.
Half of the city's budget goes into payroll, and facing an $800-million budget deficit and crumbling infrastructure all over the city, they simply had to do something, Coderre said.
The mayor said that the police and the firefighters would not be affected by the program.
At least one pundit was critical of the plan. "There are many positions that are key for the infrastructure projects to be realized such as planning and permits and engineering and if those department are cut, you might slow the growth and development," said former Montreal executive committee member Robert Libman.
And one borough mayor said that such cuts would inevitably lead to a reduction in services. "Do you want that the private is going to the job in the library? Nobody asks the boroughs what's going to happen with those kind of cuts, nobody," said Francois Croteau of Rosemont La Petite Patrie.
The Projet Montreal also expressed disapproval, as its leader said that higher-salaried manager should be targeted, rather than those doing the work in the trenches.
"It's easier to target these lower ranking employees giving services to the population," said Richard Bergeron. "This is shameful. You should target these managers and you should target police force of Montreal. That's where we should cut money."
