As I indicated yesterday, in
adhering to the realignment exercises that we’ve had to go through, my department placed the most minimal impact on the front-line services as much as possible. That is the reason most of the reductions are within the headquarters, within the Department of Health, not in the authorities.
There are reductions of 17 positions from the department, and that is about 12.5 per cent of the entire workforce of the department. I do have a table here for the Members that I can provide to the Clerk. I can advise the Members that out of the 17 positions, nine positions are vacant, six positions are filled, and five of the six have been placed or other arrangements have been made. There are two positions to be determined, and they are placed in headquarters. They’re not in any of the authorities.
The reason those are to be determined is that our reduction exercise for these positions spans over two years. It starts this year; some of the savings are this year, as I stated in my opening statement. But some of the reductions will be implemented next year because of the planning we need to do with programs and services to make sure our alignment is done in a way that impacts the program delivery at the headquarters level as minimally as possible. Seventeen positions out of 133 is quite large in that context, and we need to make sure we do it the right way. I’d be happy to provide the Member with that table.