"The Minister tries to present the case that new technology is the answer and that this is really an improvement. That is simply not true. People in rural areas of this province will be left with drastically reduced services. For example, with the closure of these 20 office across the province, employment and career services in the Department will undoubtedly suffer. Efforts to get people back into the workforce will not be there," says Butler.

Butler said he was also alarmed by the lack of planning and consultation that had been done before the closure of these 20 offices. "It should be clear that, despite the layoffs and the office closures, there has been no real analysis done to determine if this will actually save money. There is no real evidence that these drastic cuts will in the end result in the kind of savings they want. Will there be increased costs related to clients traveling to the offices? Will people be in the system longer because they don’t have access to employment and career services? Will people have trouble accessing services? Will more severe problems develop because of the cutbacks?"

In the House of Assembly the Liberal Critic asked the Minister how she was going to deal with the backlogs which already exist in the system in relation to making payments to people on income support. "There was already a backlog existing which was exasperated by the month long strike and now the Minister has closed 20 offices and this will take an already bad situation and turn it into a crisis situation."

The Liberal MHA says the end result of these changes will likely be decreased service and increased costs in the long term. "I intend to be talking to people from around this province to monitor the impacts of these changes. If they think they can attack the most vulnerable people in our society and get away with it they better think again."