There will be no job losses as a part of the Regional District of Nanaimo’s operational and efficiency review, says its top executive.
In 2013, regional district directors approved a motion to conduct an extensive core services review, which was done through feedback from management and staff. The board voted to accept the report at its Oct. 27 meeting.
“There’s no loss of positions,” said Paul Thorkelsson, regional district chief administrative officer. “Some of the recommendations speak to potential shifting to different priorities, but no loss of positions.”
The report’s priority recommendations constitute more than $1 million in direct savings for the regional district, with another $250,000 in “potential avoided costs.”
Thorkelsson said a number of recommendations representing large savings were already implemented, such as the transition to compressed natural gas for the transit fleet – a $300,000 savings.
He said there are a wide range of recommendations in the report, which the regional district board will refer to its strategic planning work in the coming months.
“The idea being that it’s part of that strategic planning. They’ll work through which recommendations perhaps they want to implement, or maybe prioritize for themselves, which ones they want to go forward with,” said Thorkelsson.
In terms of priorities that need addressing, Thorkelsson said fire services was one.
“It’s clear that we’re not able to provide the level of support that those various fire departments and their societies are asking for, we just don’t have the resources, so that’s an issue for the board to deal with in their strategic planning, about needing to dedicate more resources to that,” Thorkelsson said.