Minister says job cuts overdue
The Barrington Municipal Council has instructed staff to send a letter to premier McNeil requesting a meeting at his earliest convenience with McNeil and Community Services minister Joanne Bernard to discuss the recent sudden announcement by the department to eliminate five child protection worker positions in the Barrington office
The Council said at the time that they were none to pleased about the decisio, with warden Eddie Nickerson telling SCT, "This came out of the blue, we don't know where [the minister] is going with this and we have no intention of sitting still about it."
The Council discussed the cuts at a meeting and requested a meeting with senior staff, which Nickerson siad Thursday was "disappointing." The Council got none of the information from staff that they wanted and he is "optimistic" that the premier will take an "open-mided" approach to providing Barrington Council with the information they feel entitled to.
Nickerson says his Council wants to see information about staffing levels and case load levels at the Barrington office to determine how rational the Department decision was.
Earlier, NSGEU president Joan Jessome told SCT that “Cutting these important services in rural Nova Scotia will hurt the most vulnerable people and their communities”,
Two of the workers will be laid off and three others will be transferred to Liverpool and Yarmouth offices.
Another source told SCT that workers returning from the oil patch after losing jobs in the downturn there - and their families - will add even more strain to a fragile system.
Shelburne MLA Sterling Belliveau told reporters that the decision “Makes no sense in a region where jobs are hard to find and families are struggling to get by.”
The closure also comes as a surprise to him, Barrington/Argyle MLA Chris d’Entremont told reporters. "At the last house sitting Community Services Minister Joanne Bernard said no front-line services organizations would be cut."
“There will be no decline in services,” Minister Bernard has said, adding “There will be no impact to the frontline services.
“This was a decision that should have been done a long time ago,” she emphasized.