Aboriginal Affairs bureaucrats offered to bake snacks to save dough: document – Winnipeg Free Press

January 21, 2015

OTTAWA – Aboriginal Affairs kiboshed a proposed meeting of all its Ontario staff, who offered to bake their own snacks, gather in a public library and cram onto buses to save a bit of money, a new document shows.

The cash-strapped department — which for years has been dipping into its infrastructure budget to pay for other programs and services — balked at the $53,500 price tag for a one-day get-together that would have been held this past fall in Toronto.

A briefing note to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt outlines why management thought it would be a good idea to bring everyone together for a day.

“Recent regional management strategic planning work has uncovered many strains on the organization: staff note they are working in an unco-ordinated fashion, in silos, and there is perception of deep divides in work, process and philosophy, between each unique business centre,” says the document.

Read More: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/bureaucrats-offered-to-bake-their-own-snacks-to-save-department-some-dough-289196841.html