The union which represents workers at NL Housing says it was “shocked” to learn of major changes for the agency minutes before they were announced in the budget.
CUPE President Sherry Hillier was among a group of union leaders who gathered at the Federation of Labour offices to listen to yesterday’s speech.
CUPE NL President Sherry Hillier
“Everyone is shocked because we’re all hearing it for the first time,” she said, adding she got a call about the move 15 minutes beforehand. “Some of the other union leaders are saying ‘like you didn’t know?’ and we were like, ‘no, we didn’t know.”
PC Opposition Leader Tony Wakeham also expressed surprise by the decision to roll NL Housing into core government, calling it “disappointing.”
“How does that help with (putting) roofs over people’s heads?” Wakeham asked. “This government has a tendency to do that,” he said, referring to the recent decision to move the English school board into the Department of Education.
“This doesn’t help people,” he said.
NDP Leader Jim Dinn says he, too, was shocked to learn that CUPE was only notified of the NL Housing change at the last minute.
“And this is the whole issue around this government, what passes for meaningful consultation,” said Dinn. “I don’t know if this is going to benefit housing, or if this is going to address the situation.”
Newly minted Housing Minister Fred Hutton, meanwhile, says the decision was made in an effort to streamline and create “a broader view” of housing, including how the issues interact with other government departments.
In terms of next steps, he says it will be “status quo” for the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation for the immediate future.
“We’re going to take some time to look at this but I want to be very clear that there will be no job losses or reductions resulting from this integration,” said Hutton.
