It’s the turn of the Musée de la civilization de Québec to cut its workforce

The string of bad news for Quebec’s cultural industry continues. The Musée de la civilization de Québec confirmed on Saturday its intention to give up the services of 17 employees, in addition to reshuffling the positions of 7 others.

The news, first reported Saturday by the newspaper Dutycould be confirmed by -.

Nine people have already been laid off this week, while eight other employees have learned their contracts will not be renewed when they expire at the end of March.

Added to these measures are four position reassignments and three schedule reductions, bringing the number to 24 people affected.

In an email sent to -, the Museum explains, among other things, its decisions by the context of budgetary restrictions imposed since last November by the Legault government.

He assures that they were not taken lightly and that they are in line with other arrangements made over the past 12 months, such as changes to the Museum’s programming.

Like all public organizations and state corporations and in accordance with government expectations, the Musée de la civilization must present a balanced budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year and respect its paid hour targets.

We wanted to meet these objectives by taking into account two fundamental principles: ensuring that the Museum remains the reference institution that it is, recognized for its excellence, by limiting as much as possible the impacts on the people who are at the heart of its activities. activitieswe can read in the email.

The Quebec state corporation also points to the revision of government envelopes for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 financial years, as well as the recent withdrawal of a subsidy announced by the City of Quebec.

The union disappointed, but not surprised

Of the 24 Museum employees affected, nine are members of the Union of Professionals of the Government of Quebec (SPGQ).

The president of the group, Guillaume Bouvrette, attributes the main blame not to the management of the Museum, but to the provincial government which finances it.

He admits to not being taken by surprise by the repercussions of the hiring freeze.

We knew that there would be impacts, that it was an empty phrase to say that there would be none on public services. Culture, in general, is underfunded in Quebec.

The president of the union fears that this announcement is a harbinger of an overload of work for the spared employees and of additional cuts to come in the cultural sector.

And splitting museums?

Furthermore, Guillaume Bouvrette cannot help but notice a certain paradox in the government’s intentions.

He questions in particular the relevance of creating the National Museum of the History of Quebec (MNHQ), announced with great fanfare last year.

According to him, the mission of this future museum institution looks strangely to that of the Musée de la civilization and should have been entrusted to the latter, instead of split the structures.

The expertise was already present at the Musée de la civilization. We think that we could very well have avoided the fiasco that we are currently experiencing.he laments.

With information from Louis-Simon Lapointe