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The Saskatoon Health Region will have to cut jobs to have any hope of climbing out of a projected $45 million hole, CEO Dan Florizone says.

“We’ve had to look at everything. I’ve looked at, personally, 1,100 lines of programs and services and costs. And those 1,100 lines we’ve shortlisted and we’re going through each one individually,” he said Wednesday.

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The total SHR budget for 2015-2016 is $1.156 billion.

Difficult conversations are happening across the health region, Florizone said. Options will be presented to the board and then the health ministry for consideration, he said.

“No decisions have been made yet, but I can tell you in those options, because the vast majority of what we spend is on salaries, that there will be job cuts.”

Florizone said he had hoped reducing staff sick time and implementing new programs would curb expenses, but given population growth and the fact improvements take time to show results, it hasn’t been enough.