The Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) is shutting down its northern offices.

The commission is an independent agency responsible for maintaining the nonpartisan integrity of public service, and currently offers a variety of recruitment programs for work in the government.

The closures come as part of a restructuring of the commission rooted in changes to the Public Service Modernization Act and the Public Service Employment Act which will come into effect in December, said Tom Kelly, director of public affairs for the commission.

The changes will allow for several government departments to do their own recruitment without the commission.

The PSC is now working to consolidate its 16 offices across the country into just seven. As a result, district offices across Canada are incrementally being shut down.

There are currently two permanent workers in the Whitehorse office and one temporary worker.

One worker in the N.W.T. and one in Iqaluit will also be losing their jobs.

The announcement of the closure came very abruptly without any consultation with the employees' union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), said Jean-FranÁois Des Lauriers, regional executive vice-president.

The workers have been given three months' notice of the closure. They will be placed on the surplus list to hopefully find them employment in another area of the public sector, said Des Lauriers.

'As Canada's largest employer, there are numerous opportunities for movement within the federal government. We are working with other federal institutions and we are confident that affected employees will be placed within the PSC or elsewhere within the federal public service,' Maria Barrados, president of the commission, said in a press statement today.

Ninety-four employees throughout Canada are being affected by the closures.

However, though the office has been given its notice of closure, Barrados said in an interview today that it will not officially lock its doors until all the employees have been provided with another 'reasonable job offer.'

She said she expects the closure of all the offices across Canada will not conclude for two or three years. The office in Whitehorse will remain open as long as there are people still working there and waiting to be placed at another job.

Des Lauriers said he felt the impact of the PSC's closures will be most felt in the North, though, where the workers are long-term members of their communities.

Beyond the loss of services provided by the PSC offices in the North, communities may also be losing these employees and residents if they are shuffled to other locations in the country, he said.

'The closure is a loss to the community as a whole,' he said.

Every effort will be made to find the three Whitehorse workers jobs locally, said Barrados.

However, they will also be provided with moving incentives and options for training should they be offered a job at a different location in Canada.

Kelly said in deciding what offices to shut down, the commission looked at the various workloads. The offices remaining open will concentrate on providing resources in areas closer to major government offices.

'I have to go where my clients are,' said Barrados.

Most people now use the commission's online and phone recruitment methods, said Kelly, and the need for offices is not as prevalent.

'We're trying to modernize,' he added.

Yukon MP Larry Bagnell said in an interview this morning that he wasn't given any forewarning that the Whitehorse office would be shutting down

He believes there should be representation from the PSC in the North.

Bagnell has already spoken with Barrados. He suggested that if there was not enough work to provide full-time tasks to the Yukon's district office workers, perhaps they could be given assignments to work on that have national relevance.

However, Barrados told him that it would be difficult to manage that kind of set-up.

Barrados told the Star the PSC had explored the possibility of managing offices in a manner similar to Bagnell's suggestion, but it was deemed to be inefficient.

She said the decision was made on how to best meet government clients' needs.

'It's an extremely difficult decision,' she said.

If there were large government offices in the North, the office would be remaining open and more employees would likely be sent, she said, but that is not the current reality in Canada.

Bagnell has followed up his discussion with Barrados with a letter.

'I expressed my displeasure,' he said. However, he added, because the commission operates at an arm's-length from the federal government, he is not sure he'll be able to have much influence on the decision to close the Whitehorse office.

'It's one more federal government service lost in the area,' said Des Lauriers. 'We're losing all these services that people deserve and expect.'

Industry Canada and Environment Canada's weather office have also been closed in the Yukon over recent years.

'It's a continuation of the federal government giving up on its human presence in the territories,' said Des Lauriers.

'I'm not at all saying there isn't a need for the federal government to have a presence in the North,' said Barrados.

She added that there are other efforts being made to attempt to have federal services available in the North and to expand other services throughout Canada.

Despite the office closures, Bagnell said he feels the North is starting to get a greater emphasis from the federal government and the rest of Canada because of the Northern Strategy.

He said interest in the North in relation to economic development, sovereignty and climate change is on the rise.