CHAT News File Photo

By Alex McCuaig

Primarily parks and rec staff

City Hall lays off 170 municipal workers

May 11, 2020 | 5:00 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A number has now been put on what Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Clugston called the “massive” layoffs the city was required to make as the COVID-19 pandemic forced a number of municipal facilities to shutter.

Dennis Egert, city corporate services commissioner, says the cuts took place several weeks ago and involved 170 employees primarily in the city’s parks and recreation department who worked at facilities subject to public health orders.

“All the facilities operating and directed to be closed, those are the positions we are talking about,” said Egert. “That would be the Family Leisure Centre – we’re talking arenas, and sports facilities that we’ve been directed to close – and that also means the Esplanade.”

City officials had previously told CHAT News that they wouldn’t be releasing municipal layoff numbers due to sensitivities involving those who had lost their job.

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Egert said Monday the numbers were released in the interest of the city being good stewards of the public purse.

The City of Medicine Hat employs between 1,200 and 1,500 individuals inclusive of police and firefighters.