A council decision to look at options for collective departmental budget cuts has significantly impacted municipal staff morale, according to Chatham-Kent’s top official.
Early last month, Chatham-Kent Council passed a motion, entered by South Kent Councillor Ryan Doyle, for staff to draft a report that would look at ways to cut certain departmental budgets by 7.5 per cent collectively.
These departments included the chief administrative office, corporate services, development services, financial, budget, information technology and transformation, fire and emergency services, health and human services, and infrastructure and engineering. Programs or employees fully funded by upper levels of government were excluded, along with police services, EMS, and Riverview Gardens.
However, while seeking clarification on the motion during Monday’s council meeting, CAO Michael Duben said he has been fielding staff concerns about potential cuts to services ever since the motion was approved.
“It shouldn’t surprise councillors that there is a significantly low morale right now, so a lot of staff have been wanting to meet and talk about what’s going on,” said Duben. “That has been a challenge for some of us… just explaining to staff that, at this point in time, this motion is just for us to present ideas.”
Gord Quinton, Chatham-Kent’s chief financial officer and treasurer, said the report from staff has been completed and will likely be released to the public this week ahead of annual budget talks. Nevertheless, he said it has caused significant strain on staff.
“Staff across our organization, frontline up to EMT — this has really affected morale and productivity in our organization over the last few weeks,” said Quinton.
The 2025 annual update to the Chatham-Kent’s multi-year budget will be presented to council on November 13.
A pair of virtual public meetings will then take place on November 20 and November 21 on Facebook Live, which will include a Q&A session and a chance for residents to provide input.
Budget deliberations will take place from November 26-28.
