Axe falls at Ottawa City Hall as 2nd wave of job cuts announced

A total of 177 City of Ottawa jobs were slashed on Wednesdayin the second and last round of a sweeping reorganization.

In a message distributed late in theafternoon, city manager Steve Kanellakossaid "75 managers have departed from the organization and 102 unionizedemployees in administrative positions have been given notice."

Of those unionized employees, "some may depart while others will find placements through the collective agreement process," Kanellakos said.

The layoffshave been expected since July,whenKanellakosreorganized city departments and cut the city's senior management team from 21 to nine.

• More cuts possible after 6 city executives lose positions

Cutting management layers and consolidating departmentswill save the city $14 million a year, Kanellakos said, adding that one of his key directives from city council was to put an end to its perpetual challenge of dealingwith budget deficits.

Employees 'reeling'

The cuts will affect professionals especially hard, said Jamie Dunn, executive director of theCivic Institute of Professional Personnel.

Sixty of his members representing athird of the eliminated positions were called into meetings at buildings across the cityto be laid off Wednesday, then escorted out the door.

"A lot of people are scared, shocked, really thrown," said Dunn, adding many had worked for the City of Ottawa for 15, 20 or even 28 years.

Dunnsaid they will likely now be at home,receivingpay and benefits for up to eight weeks, until their rights toseverance kick in. He also hopes to work with the city to findvacancies or new positions for them.

"But their main concern is,'Could I get another job? What's going to happen to my ability to feed my family and pay my mortgage?"

Given that his members plan the city's programsand review policies, Dunn saidthe loss of their jobs will affect the work of the city.

"While many of these people are not frontline, they're certainly the brains and the capacity and the innovatorsbehind the frontline that make those services effective," Dunn said.

Staff were bracing for layoffs

Kanellakos saidpart of the reason so many CIPP members were affected by these layoffshas to do with with their holding roles heconsidered "business support."

He explained that some departments haddozens of people in administrative roles unique to that department, and they didn't talk with colleagues outside their silo.

"What happened over time was not a planned growth of these business support areas. It was an incremental growth of individualmanagers making decisions about people they needed, and brought in on term,"Kanellakos said.

"And that crept up. It's grown and grown."

Kanellakos said each department now will get the same 23 support staff, and thathis goal was to improve accountability and reduce bottlenecks when it comes to decision-making at the city.

His focus was therefore on administrative roles, not frontline staff, as he told CBC Newsat the end of September.

• Job cuts at Ottawa City Hall could be announced in October

Still, it was a difficult day, with one city employee describingthe mood around City Hall Wednesday as "brutal."

Kanellakosacknowledged it affected him personally he had originallyhired some of the people let go.

"The impact of this, it ripples through the whole organization. I mean I felt that today," he said.

In his message to staff, Kanellakos acknowledged the "long-lasting" work of those who were leaving, and said he and senior managers had difficult decisions to make.

"It will take time for our organization to settle into a new rhythm," he wrote.

"But the period of instability is over."