MNR Restructuring/Layoffs and Hiring

[Jon]

For those interested in changes at the MNR:

 

http://www.opseu.org/ops/ministry/mnraug132013.htm

 

 

 

Jon

[torco]

Pretty sad state of affairs...these cuts are barely a drop in the bucket of the provincial treasury

[Jds63]

585 million dollars spent on the cancelled gas plant couldn't help ? and they probably paid a consulting firm hundreds of thousands to do a study on reductions ....

 

I just don't understand ...

[craigdritchie]

585 million dollars spent on the cancelled gas plant couldn't help ? and they probably paid a consulting firm hundreds of thousands to do a study on reductions ....

 

I just don't understand ...

 

And yet in the recent by-elections, people continued to vote for the Liberals - to the point they actually retained two seats!!

 

Had the Ontario Liberals not squandered billions after billions on greasy deals like the gas plant fiascol (nearly $600 million gone poof!) ... the e-health theft/scandal ($1 billion gone poof!) ... the Ornge scandal (another $1 billion gone poof!) ... and McGuinty's green energy deal with Samsung (which will cost Ontario taxpayers $600 million a year for the next 20 years ... MEGA POOF!!!) then perhaps these MNR employees would not be out of work today. I blame their situation 100 percent on complete and total mismanagement by the provincial government.

[Raf]

sez cut 102 jobs yet hire 250. what am i missing??

[SmokestackLightnin]

Here is the biggest concern:

 

Centralize communications in Toronto

[Bertrand93]

That's just sad, especially seeing its the guys/gals that work in the field that are getting cut. The suits making the big bucks are safe, probably getting a raise

[davey buoy]

sez cut 102 jobs yet hire 250. what am i missing??

What employer would say that?only one I know,and were talking about it.How do they get away with it?

[Bill Shearer]

148 took the 'Golden Handshake" to bail before that too was held back.

Craig is correct about the by-elections. I can't believe that any got voted back in.

Mis-management with a capital M

[lookinforwalleye]

Ya keep voting Liberal...really grinds my gears that the person calling the shots was not even elected for the position!!!

[fishindevil]

MNR stands for "ministry of no results". Get rid of the red tape crap fire the minister of the environment they are useless !!!! But as usual it's the people that really matter get layed off not the higher-ups !!!!! What a sad state our resources are in and the govt just keeps gutting the MNR more and more ...... Pathetic

[wildeye rainbow]

The MNR is only a fractional shadow of what it was in the 70's and 80's when I entered the MNR workforce as a young smolt. The MNR used to be a hands-on outdoor organization, rehabbing and stocking watercourses, wildlife transplants (like the wild turkey), etc. It used to be a great place to work. Since the early 90's, a process the suits called "Change Management" started the pruning process. MNR starting getting out of the hands-on stuff and was involved in monitoring and auditing and trying to secure partners to do their former work (ie. downloading). The term "core business" was used to devolve the many things MNR did to just a few "core" jobs. The Liberals were not the only ones that have scavenged the MNR - it started with the PC government of Mike Harris and a layoff of over one-third of staff in 1996. And it carried on from there. I was lucky as I found a new work when Mike handed me the pink slip.

 

I feel for the people that are losing their jobs - they all have families, mortgages, loans, etc. and it will be a tough adjustment.

 

It's a shame what has happened to MNR over the years.

 

WR

[Acountdeleted]

Its why I had to get out of the Province. There is no place left for the blue collar field worker in Ontario. I'll be back when the Provencal government actually cares about the environment.

Edited August 14, 2013 by jeremy84

[Ralph Field]

Maybe the liberals are planning to do away with the MNR and put our native bands in charge of all MNR functions in the not to distant future. At least there would be COs in the field to enforce the laws.

[Kerry]

The MNR is only a fractional shadow of what it was in the 70's and 80's when I entered the MNR workforce as a young smolt. The MNR used to be a hands-on outdoor organization, rehabbing and stocking watercourses, wildlife transplants (like the wild turkey), etc. It used to be a great place to work. Since the early 90's, a process the suits called "Change Management" started the pruning process. MNR starting getting out of the hands-on stuff and was involved in monitoring and auditing and trying to secure partners to do their former work (ie. downloading). The term "core business" was used to devolve the many things MNR did to just a few "core" jobs. The Liberals were not the only ones that have scavenged the MNR - it started with the PC government of Mike Harris and a layoff of over one-third of staff in 1996. And it carried on from there. I was lucky as I found a new work when Mike handed me the pink slip.

 

I feel for the people that are losing their jobs - they all have families, mortgages, loans, etc. and it will be a tough adjustment.

 

It's a shame what has happened to MNR over the years.

 

WR

I think it started before that when our buddy BOB who was painted with an orange brush at the time decided to take our license dollars and put them in to 'general revenue', never to be used for the fisheries again.....Funny he paints himself with a red brush now.

Kerry

[Sharkbait22]

Liberals have messed up but would Tim Hudak do any better for MNR? Would he follow in Mike Harris' footsteps? Case of lesser of two evils? Conservatives are typically anti-science and less willing to accept change. NDP the answer?

Edited August 15, 2013 by Sharkbait22

[Sharkbait22]

I think it started before that when our buddy BOB who was painted with an orange brush at the time decided to take our license dollars and put them in to 'general revenue', never to be used for the fisheries again.....Funny he paints himself with a red brush now.

Kerry

This has change. Most fish and wildlife dollars come from licence fees - a real problem when the number of anglers is dropping each year.

[BillM]

Its why I had to get out of the Province. There is no place left for the blue collar field worker in Ontario. I'll be back when the Provencal government actually cares about the environment.

 

You didn't move out west for the $$$$?

[bobogo]

sez cut 102 jobs yet hire 250. what am i missing??

 

you're missing the part where they say "plan" to hire 250 new jobs. That could be over the course of who knows how many years.

[porkpie]

 

You didn't move out west for the $$$$?

Most resource management jobs have average salarys even out west. Starting wage for a conservation officer is relatively low in Alberta for example, compared to a job driving a truck in the patch!

[craigdritchie]

148 took the 'Golden Handshake" to bail before that too was held back.

 

In this case, more of a golden shower than a golden handshake.

 

Liberals have messed up but would Tim Hudak do any better for MNR? Would he follow in Mike Harris' footsteps? Case of lesser of two evils? Conservatives are typically anti-science and less willing to accept change. NDP the answer?

 

HIstorically, the MNR has usually done better under the Conservatives than it has under the LIberals. Conservative vote base tends to be stronger in rural ridings, compared to the Liberals, who tend to have stronger support in major cities. Mike Harris wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but his government was very good to MNR. Anti-science? Not at all. That's crap made up by the Toronto media.

 

NDP is NOT the answer - they are the worst thing that could posibly happen to MNR. Were you not here when Bob Rae's NDP wanted to hand control of MNR over to the Indians?

Edited August 15, 2013 by Craig_Ritchie

[dave524]

The MNR is only a fractional shadow of what it was in the 70's and 80's when I entered the MNR workforce as a young smolt. The MNR used to be a hands-on outdoor organization, rehabbing and stocking watercourses, wildlife transplants (like the wild turkey), etc. It used to be a great place to work. Since the early 90's, a process the suits called "Change Management" started the pruning process. MNR starting getting out of the hands-on stuff and was involved in monitoring and auditing and trying to secure partners to do their former work (ie. downloading). The term "core business" was used to devolve the many things MNR did to just a few "core" jobs. The Liberals were not the only ones that have scavenged the MNR - it started with the PC government of Mike Harris and a layoff of over one-third of staff in 1996. And it carried on from there. I was lucky as I found a new work when Mike handed me the pink slip.

 

I feel for the people that are losing their jobs - they all have families, mortgages, loans, etc. and it will be a tough adjustment.

 

It's a shame what has happened to MNR over the years.

 

WR

 

 

As a grad of the B. Sc. Forestry program at U of T in the early seventies, I can tell you the decline started pretty much at the name change from the Dept of Lands and Forests to the M.N.R.

[Wendel]

the 250 new jobs are most like low paying call centre type jobs.

The MNR is not the only place to layoff/buyout expensive long term employees and replace them with low cost employees. Look at what some manufacturing corporations have done, the government is no different. It's all about the bottom line, management will always save their own ass first by cutting people under them...

[outllaw]

sad eh. a rich resource province. mnr have taken hits for years.

do you remember the days a conservation officers job held esteem. we can thank our goverments for selling/giving away our kids heritage.

[wildeye rainbow]

I don't think so Craig. I was there and his government was anything but "very good to MNR". He blitzed the few hands-on things that MNR used to do - aggregates, lands program, forestry nurseries, etc. But to be fair, the downward slide happened with earlier governments - Mike just did the cutting more fervently.

 

There was always talk about merging with the MOE - perhaps it's time to take any relevant parts and merge and eliminate the extra management.

 

Mike Harris wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but his government was very good to MNR. Anti-science? Not at all. That's crap made up by the Toronto media.