Job losses coming in next budget, Ross Wiseman warns

Newfoundland and Labrador Finance Minister Ross Wiseman says the upcoming provincial budget will include cuts to the civil service, as the government deals with a huge deficit triggered by  falling oil prices.

It's going to be impossible, really, to have the kind of reductions that we are talking about without having some impact on employees.- Ross Wiseman

Wiseman said people can expect the upcoming provincial budget to include a combination of cuts, fee hikes and layoffs of public employees.

"We're trying to look at a cost structure that we need to achieve in order to bring our finances in line," Wiseman said during Wednesday's edition of CBC Radio's CrossTalk. 

"It's going to be impossible, really, to have the kind of reductions that we are talking about without having some impact on employees."

While layoffs are inevitable, the minister hopes that they can be minimized through attrition and retirements. 

"Whenever we talk about the delivery of public services, that's done by people," he said.

"We need to recognize that it will impact those individuals."

Long-term plan sought to restore balance

Wiseman said it could take years before the government will get back to having a budget surplus.

"We need to map out a five-year plan to get us back to a surplus position," he told CBC's Cecil Haire.

While retirements and attrition could lesson the overall impact to individual workers, Wiseman recognizes that the sheer size of the public sector presents a challenge.

"There's close to 50,000 people involved in the public service in this province," he said.

"So we've got to look at how each of those function."

Downsizing the number of public employees isn't the only way the government will be looking to weather the drop in oil prices, according to Wiseman.

"We need to look at our tax and fee structure," he said.

"The other lever we have to pull is borrowing, because we do need to have cash to run the day-to-day operations."