UNW members protest proposed job cuts outside NWT legislature

Members of the Union of Northern Workers rallied outside the territorial legislature on Tuesday, demanding that public-sector jobs be protected in the 2024-25 budget.

The budget, which has yet to be voted on, proposes cutting 91 public-sector positions, 58 of which are currently staffed and 33 of which are vacant.

The proposed cuts would discontinue an expansion of Yellowknife’s midwifery program and close the men’s unit at the Fort Smith Correctional Complex.

“I don’t think the government has taken the time to have a good look at things and, by cutting members and services that our public needs, that’s not the way to go about it,” said UNW president Gayla Thunstrom.

“That government is top-heavy. They need to be looking from top down, and they need to start there before we start slashing jobs that this territory needs.”

In a speech addressing the crowd, Thunstrom added: “A common theme everyone up north can relate to is how long it takes to access services, how long it takes to hear back from government offices, and seemingly endless waitlists. Why? Because there aren’t enough front-line staff to do the work.”

First vice-president for the union, Melvin Larocque, said politicians “don’t realize that our front-line workers are what keeps our communities alive.”

Also in attendance at Tuesday’s rally was Great Slave MLA and former union local president Kate Reid.

“Right now, at a time when we’re trying to recover for me with some really traumatic experiences across the territory, it seems like a really unfair and frightening thing to be cutting into public services so deeply, and affecting people in some of the hardest-hit communities,” said Reid.

While the proposed budget has a stated operating surplus of $294 million, the GNWT’s approach to its finances involves assigning the vast majority of that to cover its infrastructure spending for the year ahead.

The territory has said its proposals would save some $48 million through cuts, though overall spending would still increase slightly.

“We want this government to be sustainable for the long term,” finance minister Caroline Wawzonek told reporters last month.

Wawzonek and Premier RJ Simpson have said they are aiming to find $150 million in savings annually by reducing government spending and increasing revenues.

At a May briefing, Wawzonek said the budget “represents difficult choices” to achieve some of that goal but does not reach the full $150-million target.

The minister said this “was never intended to be an austerity budget” or “making cuts simply for the sake of cuts.”

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