It will be some time yet before it's know how many BC Hydro jobs in Prince George are at stake as a result of a review panel recommending the utility cut up to 1,200 jobs, says a spokeswoman for a union representing employees at the Crown corporation.
"We don't know those numbers," Sage Aaron said Friday. "We pretty eager to get hold of them as well, as you can imagine, but they're either not just available or folks just aren't being forthcoming."
The job cuts were among several recommendations issued Thursday by the provincial government's ministerial rate review panel.
The provincial government ordered the review this past spring after Hydro announced it would be hiking rates by about 10 per cent in each of the next three years. The Crown corporation will now resubmit its rate application, asking for an eight-per-cent increase this year, and 3.9 per cent in each of the following two years.
The 130-page report does not suggest which infrastructure projects Hydro should put off or exactly where to trim the corporation's current workforce of 6,000 people.
Those decisions will be made as the corporation's executive prepares a detailed business plan designed to avoid imposing hefty rate increases on consumers and businesses.
Hydro has agreed to cut its expenses by more than $800 million over three years by putting some projects on hold and making changes to how it awards contracts and manages its finances.
One project that won't be affected is the controversial Site C dam, a massive hydroelectric development in the Peace River region in northeastern B.C. The $8-billion project is currently in the environmental assessment phase, and when finished could provide inexpensive power for a century.
The report endorses the Site C dam, and the province's energy minister reaffirmed the government's support for the project on Thursday.
The panel's report noted the corporation currently has about 6,000 workers, and suggested it could get by with 4,800. While it didn't detail exactly where to make cuts, the report noted several areas in which BC Hydro may have too many people doing the same job.
For example, BC Hydro currently employs about 650 engineers - about six times more than the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, which has a comparable capital program.
The corporation may also have too many workers in the areas of finance, human resources, information management and communication, the report says.
BC Hydro has 142 staff in charge of internal and external communications, which the report says "appears high" when compared with the provincial government's 187 communications staff for its 28,000 employees.
-- with files from Canadian Press
