The president of NAPE is asking the provincial government not to follow Ottawa’s lead in making cuts to the public sector.

By March of 2029, the federal government expects to slash public service positions by 40,000.

Jerry Earle says members of the public service represent a range of skills and specialties from health care to roads maintenance and clerical staff.

He says a fully-staffed public service helps everything run more efficiently, and vacancy rates in the province are currently at an “alarming” level.

He says in “every occupational group we have vacancy rates in some places that are quite significant…when you lose the front line workers from delivering services, unfortunately it’s the general population that’s going to see that effect.”