The province is moving forward with a plan to privatize cleaning services at all government buildings.
The cost-cutting measure was first considered back at the beginning of the year as part of plans to fight the $1.2 billion provincial deficit.
“The successful submissions have demonstrated the ministry can save $3.5 million annually, helping the province save money during the current challenging fiscal times,” Central Services Minister Christine Tell said in a news release. “Equally important is that half of the successful companies are employee-owned and all companies have committed to hiring current employees.”
“We understand there are employees affected by this decision. The Ministry of Central Services is committed to working with these employees and their union, within the terms of their collective bargaining agreement.”
Currently, there are 230 cleaning staff.
More than 1,000 bids were received from 65 different companies looking to provide services for the 95 government-owned buildings across the province.
The submissions were scored and analyzed before a final 12 were selected.
The contracts begin July 1, 2017.