The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo council recently voted down a hiring freeze, with the votes tallying 6-4. Councillor Lance Bussieres forwarded a motion to put a hiring freeze in place due to the economic downturn that the area has suffered recently. The goal of the motion was to prevent any hiring for full time positions which were vacant with the exception of positions that the municipality had a legal obligation to fill. Bussieres said “It’s just being financially prudent as an organization. I’ve talked to a number of employees at the municipality, and what they tell me is there’s not a lot of work for them to do. For whatever reason the workload isn’t there. Contrary to what people think, our population is not 120,000, it’s probably closer to [80,000].”

Various Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo council members gave different reasons for voting against the hiring freeze. Coun. Colleen Tatum felt that a freeze in hiring would demoralize staff, and Coun. Allan Vinni thought that the move would be both ineffective and it would be the same as a vote of no confidence in Marcel Ulliac, the current Chief Administrative Officer. Fort MacMurray Mayor Melissa Blake said that approving the motion for a hiring freeze would be intervening in the responsibilities of the CAO. Blake stated that this would be a slight against the CAO, and said “I’m not going to do that to my CAO, and your CAO.” The councillors who voted for the motion were Ault, Bussieres, McGrath, and Germain, while those against it were Tatum, Vinni, Meagher, Cardinal, Stroud, and Mayor Blake.