60 positions abolished at the Tax Center

The layoffs will be effective in mid-December, we learned The Nouvelliste. These cuts would be part of a global plan, which sees around a hundred CRA officials being dismissed today across Quebec, and 600 in total across the country.

According to the information we were able to collect, around sixty workers laid off worked in the collection department. All holders of a temporary status, the employees will simply not see their contracts renewed. Some had apparently been employed by the Agency for several years.

The entry-level salary for the targeted job category is a little over $65,000 per year.

Through a domino effect, we also learn that team leaders are also seeing themselves demoted to subordinate positions, with reductions in pay that would amount to tens of thousands of dollars.

In short, a potential payroll of more than four million dollars is evaporating from the local economy. However, the figure deserves some nuance, since some of the dismissed employees perhaps come from outside the region and did not report to Shawinigan on a daily basis. This is data that is impossible to verify at the union level, we are told, and The Nouvelliste was still awaiting clarification from the CRA at the time of writing.

The ARC explains

At the Canada Revenue Agency, we cite “responsible use of public funds”, linked in particular to a reduction in needs at the end of the pandemic, to justify the layoffs. It is therefore the contracts of around 600 employees who are not renewed, we confirm, without giving details on the geographical distribution of the cuts, effective from December 13.

“We understand that terminating these contracts prematurely may come as a surprise to many employees and managers. There is no easy way to communicate this news, and we recognize that this can cause stress, especially so close to the end of the year,” it is argued in a written communication.

“Disgusting!”

In the Shawinigan-Sud building, the news created a shock wave, despite the warning signals launched by the CRA last week, which spoke of “difficult decisions” to come.

“It’s happening two weeks before Christmas… It’s disgusting, I have no other words,” says Julien Nobert, president of the Tax Workers’ Union in Shawinigan.

If today’s announcement only half surprises him, he who had loudly proclaimed his concern at the start of the week, Mr. Nobert notes that the cuts are being made on the front line, which could be a bad omen for the continuation of things.

“We are cutting into the cash cow [le recouvrement]what do you think will come next? I anticipate more waves as the weeks progress. This is just the beginning.”

— Julien Nobert, president of the Tax Workers Union in Shawinigan

Julien Nobert says he has received feedback leading him to believe “that a major clean-up is being done at the central administration”.

Cynical, anyone who was worried that the new federal ARC building in Shawinigan-Sud had one floor amputated during construction is now wondering if the new offices will ultimately not be too spacious .

“More and more, we say to ourselves that it will come back, and maybe it will even come back after five days a week,” quips Julien Nobert, referring to a decline in the provisions of the collective agreement on teleworking. “That too creates worry,” he laments.

12 or 60 layoffs?

Asked to comment, the office of the MP for Saint-Maurice–Champlain, François-Philippe Champagne, said it had information that only 12 of the 60 layoffs would affect people from the region. The other 48 would relate to the local union, but would not be linked to the Shawinigan-Sud facilities strictly speaking*.

It was not possible to clarify further, especially since the union continues to deplore the loss of 60 positions, despite the ambiguity.

Regardless, in a written communication, Minister Champagne’s office argues that “we are always sensitive when it comes to job reductions in the region.”

François-Philippe Champagne’s team also recalls that “in recent years, approximately 300 positions have been created at the Shawinigan Tax Center, going from 1,800 to nearly 2,100 jobs. The Tax Center remains an employer of choice for thousands of workers in Mauricie who serve Canadians every day.”

Villemure deplores, Angers tempers

The MP for Trois-Rivières, René Villemure, sees in the latest developments a blatant contradiction between the government’s past announcements and the reality of workers on the ground.

“We always have a Liberal minister who is there during the announcements, then we were told that there would be no loss of jobs. But here, we have job cuts, and that’s not news that people like to relay.”

— René Villemure, federal deputy for Trois-Rivières

Mr. Villemure, whose political party advocates a single tax income, believes that the Bloc proposal would not have resulted in the job losses that are occurring today. “The evaluation we made was zero-sum, or even a little more favorable,” he argues.

At the end of the line, the member for Trois-Rivières maintains that if the government wants to demonstrate budgetary rigor, several recent examples of waste of public funds should be put aside before proceeding with unilateral layoffs in the public service.

For his part, Mayor Michel Angers is saddened by the loss of jobs in his city, as mayor, but agrees at the same time, as manager of a public organization, that difficult choices are sometimes necessary.

“There’s never anything funny, there’s never anythingfun in there, but now what are the reasons why they are cutting?” asks the mayor of Shawinigan.

If the layoffs result from budgetary imperatives, Michel Angers calls for transparency from decision-makers. “If we cut services for a financial conspiracy, you have to be honest and say it,” he insists, “but as mayor of a city, it’s always a loss.”

* Update: In the evening, the office of the Minister of National Revenue, Marie-Claude Bibeau, sent us a count of job cuts in Quebec. It appears that 58 laid-off employees reported to Shawinigan, but that only 10 of them were “physically located in Mauricie. The others live elsewhere, mainly in Montreal,” it says.