Petrolia Councillor Wade Deighton wants to make sure the town is not automatically filling positions left vacant by retirements.

And he’s not alone. In Nov. 2020, council passed a motion asking the CAO to report on attrition management. At council Monday, Deighton brought the motion back and asked for a report from Rick Charlebois about what actually has happened.

“When people retire or quit the CEO was to come back to us with a report on this as the justification for replacing this role. Because, as you know, we’ve not reduced staff overall, we continue to add staff. And there’s some concern are we just replacing, because we’ve always had those people,” Deighton told The Independent.

“Recently, there has been a couple of retirements and or (people) quitting and the CEO has just went ahead and replaced them without justification, as to do you actually need that many people in those positions,” says Deighton. “It’s just a check and balance.”

Charlebois says at the end of 2021, according to reports filed with the province, there were up to 69 people on the town’s payroll – depending on the time of the year. There were 24 full-time and 11 part-time employees. Another 29 people are on the seasonal payroll including crossing guards and summer students.

Another 35 people are at the fire department although they are not considered employees despite receiving a small stipend for their volunteer efforts.

Deighton says councillors need the information heading into budget particularly as the economy is changing.

“I’m asking the question to the CAO, what are you doing to actively look at your department’s numbers in an effort to overall reduce those numbers if at all possible … It’s something that every business has to do.”