Jul 09, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. The B.C. Government and Service Employees Union says the ministry officials have outlined plans to implement a 12% budget cut in 2009/2010, ForestTalk reported. The union said at a recent labour management meeting, they were told the Ministry of Forests plan to implement a cut of $96 million by March 31, 2010. The cuts would come from a combination of the 230 job cuts, reduced spending, rejigging functions such as compliance & enforcement to work ‘smarter' and cheaper, and collaborating with other ministries on spending items such as road engineering. The union said the Ministry officials said their goal is to not have any current employee pushed out of work. They are pursuing cuts through normal attrition, filling only critical vacancies, filling those vacancies internally, deleting as many vacancies as possible, and using lateral transfers-including to other ministries-using the Opportunities and Skills Database.