The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor 'I don't see an idle workforce,' Mayor George Fontaine recently said in defending the volume of city employees. 'If I saw an idle workforce, then I'd say, 'Okay, let's stop.'' As Mayor Fontaine faces ongoing pressure to cut spending, something of a public debate has arisen. Does a shrinking city really need all of those employees? Let's start with the hard numbers. The City of Flin Flon has one employee for every 35 residents. This includes 52 full-time workers, 32 part-time and 75 casual and seasonal _ a total of 159. The employees run quite a gamut. There are administrators who crunch numbers and teenagers who mow grass; men who sustain ice at the Whitney Forum and women who safeguard swimmers' lives at the Aqua Centre. In financial terms, City Hall set aside 42 per cent of its 2012 budget _ $4.92 million of $11.70 million _ to cover wages and benefits, including pensions. Are there too many city workers? Do they eat up too much of the budget? That is all subjective, of course. However, Flin Flon's numbers do stack up fairly closely to those in The Pas, a similar-sized community. With 153 employees _ 77 full-time, 75 part-time and one casual _ The Pas has one municipal worker for every 36 residents. In 2012, The Pas will spend 39 per cent of its budget _ $5.11 million of $12.96 million _ on wages and benefits. While The Pas expends a bit less on workers, as a percentage of budget, than Flin Flon, the more southerly town has a far higher ratio of full-time employees. In The Pas, there is one full-time worker for every 72 residents. In Flin Flon, the figure is one for every 108 citizens. Of course Flin Flon and The Pas serve far more than just their own citizenry. Both communities have sizable surrounding areas from which outsiders arrive and often use municipal services. Flin Flon's municipal workforce appears on the way up as the new water treatment plant, due to open later this year, will require additional, highly trained staff. Can the city make due with fewer workers, cutting both immediate salary costs and longer-term pension costs? Mayor Fontaine has said that, yes, the city can eliminate jobs _ but at a price. At a recent council meeting, he gave the example of a city worker who fixes municipal water pumps. What if he was let go? 'It's going to cost about 14 basements when he's not around to make sure the pumps are going,' the mayor said. 'There's a lot of jobs like this. They're there for a reason.' Are those reasons enough to satisfy taxpayers? In some cases yes, in some cases no. Thus the basic question _ does a shrinking city really need all of those employees? _ will continue to surface as the public appetite for more fiscal restraint grows.
