During the last two weeks, 7 of our members at the National Capital Commission and 19 members at the National Gallery of Canada were told they will lose their jobs.
The employees at the National Capital Commission were told they would be out of a job by the end of March. Unfortunately, these members do not benefit from the same workforce adjustment provisions found in collective agreements like those of the Treasury Board or Parks Canada. The Local was only given a 15-minute advance notice of the layoffs.
The National Capital Commission has eliminated 29 positions this year, mostly through attrition. Last year, it eliminated 22. The organization is still trying to deal with the budget cuts imposed by the 2010 federal budget.
Winterlude and Canada Day are among the many events that the commission promotes to celebrate Canadian heritage.
“These members were shown the door mere days after the end of Winterlude,” said National Executive Vice-President Eddie Kennedy. “It’s pretty vile to do that to your employees after they’ve given 110% to promote one of your biggest events.”
Kennedy says small businesses in Ottawa should start to worry.
“Most of the members who were laid off worked in public affairs, marketing and communications. How are you supposed to promote your events without these key people? It’s small businesses that really depend on tourism that are going to suffer from these poor decisions.”
Meanwhile, the National Gallery of Canada chose to eliminate 24 positions – and this, after drawing thousands to last year’s Van Gogh exhibit. That exhibition was the fourth best attended since the gallery moved to its current location in 1988, with over 230,100 paying visitors.
“This is just another example of cuts directly impacting Canadian families,” said National President Doug Marshall. “The National Gallery is fast becoming a skeleton of what it once was. With the recent loss of guides, these cuts are robbing young minds of valuable opportunities to learn beyond the classroom.”
At the nearby Ottawa School of Art, Executive Director Jeff Stellick says the people who use the gallery on a deeper level are bound to notice the cuts.
“It’ll mean longer wait times and less availability of resources. It’s going to make life more difficult for anybody going there to do research,” said Stellick. “Not to mention how much more difficult it’s going to make life for the 29 people who don’t have a job anymore.” [Editor’s note: the Gallery cut 29 positions, of which 24 were positions unionized with the PSAC.]
Five of the positions cut last week belonged to the gallery’s library and archives. Students at the Ottawa School of Art often use that service research and study prints and drawings.
“It’s going to make that kind of experience much more difficult and harder to come by,” said Stellick. “They’re not just going to let people walk in and start pulling prints from the drawers. It’s going to put more work on the staff that are left and make art less available for people who go there and want to see things.”
“It’s all going to have the same impact, which is less access in the long run.”