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This article was published 16/5/2017 (1220 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Progressive Conservative government is preparing to tell postsecondary schools to cut 15 per cent of their managers.

"In process — I don't think that one's underway," Premier Brian Pallister said in an interview Tuesday. "There's a lot of moving parts on this. I don't think postsecondary education's been communicated with."

Pallister said rural regional health authorities have also been told to reduce 15 per cent of their management but the ever-widening government directive would not be extended to school divisions.

Previously, the province gave the directive to the civil service, crown corporations and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority as part of its austerity program to bring public spending under control.

Wage control bills will take effect by June 1 that would impose a freeze on 120,000 public sector workers in their next collective bargaining agreement. Their wages would be frozen for two years, followed by a maximum raise of 0.75 per cent in the third year and one per cent maximum in the fourth.

Both the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg have said they have not received a directive, but one university source said rumours have been circulating.

A U of W official said the university has been trimming administration jobs steadily in recent years.

Pallister said Tuesday management ranks swelled in the public sector under the former NDP government.

"Research shows there was excessive growth at the top," he said.

Most public organizations' budgets have been set or are very close to being set for the next year. Reducing management can be a very costly exercise because of expensive severance payouts.

Manitoba Hydro, which is in the process buying out 900 workers to reduce its regular workforce by 15 per cent, does not expect to show any savings until sometime in 2018.

Earlier during estimates, the premier told interim NDP leader Flor Marcelino management cuts in the public sector are already well underway.

"The numbers at the management level have grown during the previous government," Pallister said. "There is significant growth in almost every sector: the civil service, health care, postsecondary education.

"The staff complements grew. We made a decision we would trim the number of management positions. It is progressing."

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca