5 hours Ago By By Maggie Macintosh
WINNIPEG — The NDP government made about 1,962 hires — roughly one in 10 of whom is a secretary or fills other administrative roles — during the first year of its mandate. Read this article for free: Already have an account? As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support.
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Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! WINNIPEG — The NDP government made about 1,962 hires — roughly one in 10 of whom is a secretary or fills other administrative roles — during the first year of its mandate. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? WINNIPEG — The NDP government made about 1,962 hires — roughly one in 10 of whom is a secretary or fills other administrative roles — during the first year of its mandate. While critics warn about the costs associated with hiring from Oct.
1, 2023 to Oct. 31, 2024, the Kinew government and leader of the government employees union suggest they were necessary to carry out day-to-day operations in an aging workforce. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, whose spokespeople suggested the recruits showcase “runaway bureaucratic growth,” obtained the numbers via a freedom of information request.
The data shows there were waves of hiring in clerk, labourer and correctional officer roles, with 131, 74 and 59 employees tapped in each of those respective positions. The figures do not reflect net-new growth across the workforce. It is unclear how many of the hires were for retirements, resignations and other temporary and permanent departures during that 13-month period.
Combined, the annual salaries obtained by the federation amount to roughly $113 million. “We know that there’s 2,500 fewer employees in the public service than there was 10 years ago and our population continues to grow in Manitoba so there’s Manitobans looking for services,” said Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union. While noting the vacancy rate has hovered around 20 per cent in recent years, Ross said residents are not getting the services they pay for at delivery levels they both expect and deserve.
The union leader argued the latest hires only begin to address vacancy challenges and urged managers to focus on recruiting younger employees to address a “generational change.” In total, 1,458 employees left the public service during the last fiscal year (2023-24). Sixty per cent of them resigned, per the Manitoba Public Service Commission’s latest report.
The 2023-24 report showed that, as of last spring, the average public servant was 45.2 years old. It projected almost a third of the workforce would be eligible to retire within five years.
That figure is slated to climb to 53 per cent within the decade. Gage Haubrich, prairie director at the taxpayers federation said if the NDP is serious about balancing the budget by 2027, it must prioritize filling key positions, such as front-line health workers, over receptionists and other “back-line staff.” “We would like to see the government balance the budget as soon as possible, but it becomes very difficult to do that while adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the government wage bill,” Haubrich said.
His lobby group requested the number of employees hired across the public service and related compensation during the bulk of Wab Kinew’s first year as premier; Kinew and his colleagues were sworn in on Oct. 18, 2023. On the lower-end of the pay scales, new receptionists, park attendants and labourers earn around $40,000 annually.
The highest-paid addition is a medical officer, with a posted salary of $326,821. Haubrich noted the number of government and publicly funded agency employees who earn upwards of $100,000 has been on a steady rise in recent years. At the same time, annual public salary disclosure reports show 4,253 fewer Manitobans who work in the public sector made $85,000 or more in 2023 compared to 2022.
While reiterating the NDP’s pledge to balance the budget by 2027, Finance Minister Adrien Sala said the province is juggling fiscal responsibilities and workforce needs. “Manitobans want a government that invests in the services that they care about so we’ve been doing, I think, really important work of staffing up in those areas that really matter,” Sala said during an interview in his office at the legislature. He named Vital Statistics, road maintenance and water quality testing as areas that suffered “significant reductions,” under former PC governments.
The minister added that the vacancy rate is now about 16 per cent, down from the 23.5 per cent he and his colleagues inherited in 2023. Tory finance critic Lauren Stone accused the NDP of only being good at “bloated bureaucracy” and “racking up debt.
” “The NDP have no plan to balance the budget, no plan to control spending, and no plan to deliver better services for Manitobans,” said Stone. The forecast deficit for this year is $1.3 billion, up $513 million from the projection in the spring budget.
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