Fewer people will be delivering provincially subsidized health care and social services in Laval during the coming year.
Laval’s regional health authority announced plans to abolish 111 jobs and reassign 49 more positions.
The cutbacks will save the provincial government $14,734,600, the regional health care and social services authority (known by its French acronym CISSS) said in a statement. That’s 2.1 per cent of next year’s nearly $700 million CISSS budget.
According to CISSS spokeswoman Paula Beaudoin, the Quebec government approved the budget before CISSS announced the workforce reductions.
“CISSS Laval employs more than 8,200 people,” she told The Suburban in an interview, adding that that the cuts, will affect many different departments.
The rationalization is part of provincial government efforts to put the brake on public spending. More than half of Quebec’s health-care spending goes toward paying for administrative overhead.
In contrast, other countries that invest heavily in government health care, like France, devote a far smaller portion of their medical budget on bureaucrats.
Management positions account for 43 of the 111 positions axed during the current round of cuts. Of the remaining 68 positions, 19 are vacant.
“We don’t expect any reduction in service,” CISSS Laval CEO Caroline Barbir said in a statement.
