The chief of staff to the Premier of Ontario has eliminated 10 positions from Doug Ford’s Office and initiated a hiring freeze, a memo obtained by CTV News reveals.
Travis Kann said that, since he was appointed to the role in March, he has applied the same “rigour and discipline” to managing Premier’s Office team that the government has taken in managing the size of the Ontario Public Service since 2018.
“This has included re-locating personnel within our office or across government to more productive areas, as well as saying goodbye to colleagues. I want to thank them for their contributions to our government and province,” he said in the memo.
According to Kann, the reduction of 10 staff members in the office will save Ontarians $1,074,500 annually.
To that effect, he added that a hiring freeze will be introduced for the office, and that all new hires will require approval by him or the deputy chief of staff for human resources following a review.
Kann said as a next step, he will be working with certain ministers’ offices to “encourage” comparable savings across government. He did not specify which ministries he’s look at specifically.
“Chiefs are encouraged to put their hand up if they believe they can achieve savings. Together, we can continue to demonstrate our shared commitment to respecting taxpayer dollars.”
Ford was asked about the cuts at an unrelated news conference on Thursday and said he directed Kann to make the changes.
“We have to lead. We are driving efficiencies throughout the province and I directed my chief of staff, ‘I want to see a million dollars savings.’ That is a big chunk out of an office. So that is it. We just cut a million dollars and that is critical. You have to lead by example.”
