Montreal — The Quebec government announced Wednesday that it plans to abolish 16,000 jobs by 2013 in efforts to streamline services and reduce the size of the bureaucracy.
The downsizing, what Liberal Premier Jean Charest has called the modernization of the provincial government, was central in his election platform last year.
“The modernization of the state isn't an accounting exercise,” Treasury Board president Monique Jérôme-Forget told a news conference. “It's an architecture project. We're fixing the house.
“Slowly and gently, we're going to reduce the size of the government,” she said.
She said the government will respect collective agreements with its unionized employees.
Ms. Jérôme-Forget also said Quebec will increase its on-line services.
She said the government will make it easier for the almost one million Quebeckers who move annually on July 1. They will be able to telephone or go on the Internet to let the government know their change of address. That one step will automatically result in the address being changed, for example, on their health cards and driving permits and the province's voting list, she said.
Ms. Jérôme-Forget also announced that Quebec's numerous government organizations would be merged.
