WINNIPEG -- The Manitoba government is planning to cut 112 management jobs in the civil service and is not ruling out layoffs.
Finance Minister Cameron Friesen says all departments will be part of the effort to cut senior management positions by the end of next year while sparing front-line jobs.
Friesen says the cuts are to be made partly through attrition and retirements, but he isn't ruling out handing some managers pink slips.
The Progressive Conservative government plans to cut costs and chip away at an $846-million deficit.
The Tories have already cut the number of cabinet ministers to 13 from 19, and are doing a value-for-money audit of government programs with an eye to balancing the budget within eight years.
The management cuts are aimed at saving at least $10 million a year.
Friesen says that level of the bureaucracy has grown sharply in recent years.
"The growth of that senior management within government (has been) four times the rate of the growth of the overall civil service. Of course that is not sustainable," Friesen said Thursday.
"This effort begins immediately."
