Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Apr 26/02) - Some recent cuts to health-related jobs will have no effect on Inuvik jobs.

Deputy Minister of Health and Social Service Mark Cleveland said while some 30 jobs in Yellowknife will be affected, no jobs will be lost in Inuvik.

"No one in Inuvik got a letter saying they are an affected employee," Cleveland said.

Under a reorganization plan, the department will streamline the Yellowknife office, eliminating 30 jobs, but no one will be laid-off because of the action.

"We continue to look at how we can do things more effectively in Inuvik, just as we do here," he said. "But there's nobody in Inuvik that will be affected by this reorganization."

Under the staff retention policy, if a job is eliminated or changed drastically, that employee is offered a new position within the department or elsewhere with the government.

"The department has a responsibility to work with those employees and place them with other jobs within the department first and if that can't be done, place them within another job within the government," he said. "The old days of the pink slip and you're gone are over."

The affected employees will be offered new jobs within the department and Cleveland says there are 50 openings that need to be filled.

"We've structured ourselves now, so that we feel we're going to be more effective in supporting the system as a whole," he said.

The department employs about 170 people.