Faced with declining revenue and recurring budget deficits in recent years, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada announced on Nov. 25 the termination of seven positions at its national office in Toronto. The terminations were part of a plan to cut the 2009 budget by $1.3 million and reduce the deficit to $800,000.
“I want to emphasize that all these decisions were due to structural changes we are forced to make as a result of financial constraints we are facing. None were due to performance issues,” said an internal memo sent to staff by Archdeacon Michael Pollesel, the national church’s general secretary. “Each of these seven individuals contributed to the ongoing life of church house and we thank them for their time with us.”
Five staff from the financial management and development department and the communications and information resources department were laid off; the positions of two staff (yet unidentified pending negotiations) set to retire next year will not be filled.
Notice that they are merely reducing the deficit. They have been running in the red for many years now. But they “plan” to have a balanced budget by 2010 or 2011. Yeah, right.
The more you punish, the more you bleed.