Information specialists, administrators most affected by cost cutting ordered by Treasury Board

Ottawa CitizenFebruary 16, 2010

The National Research Council is laying off 86 people as part of cuts announced last year to reduce costs at the country's leading research organization. NRC spokeswoman Leslie Meearburg said most of the people being laid off are information specialists and administrators.

The layoffs begin in April and will affect employees at the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI), the country's national science library and leading publisher of scientific information. By the time it is over, CISTI, which used to employ about 350 people, will be down by close to 70 per cent, union officials say.

In a Feb. 10 letter headed "Notice of Surplus Status," CISTI director-general Pam Bjornson tells employees that as part of a strategic review, their services are no longer required.

"I regret to inform you that as part of this exercise your position has been identified as surplus. Your layoff date will be April 6, 2010 at the close of business," she wrote.

Bjornson assured the workers that those who wish it will be placed on an eight-week priority list to find jobs in government. But some of the employees say that in a public service that is retrenching, jobs are hard to come by.

NRC president Pierre Coulombe told employees in a memo last year that two research groups of the Institute for Information Technology and another in the Institute for Microstructural Sciences would be phased out in a major reorganization. CISTI would be downsized, and its publishing arm privatized. The cuts were in response to a program review ordered by the federal government to reduce costs in the public service. Coulombe warned at the time that the changes "will have significant impact" on jobs and some feared that up to 300 jobs would be lost.

But NRC and union officials say the number affected is 86.

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