CALGARY -- More than 1,000 City of Calgary employees are joining the ranks of Albertans who lost their jobs due to the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The employees are on-call, part-time or temporary workers in the recreation or Calgary Neighbourhoods business units, the city said.
The city's recreation facilities have been shut down for more than two weeks as part of the city's emergency plan to help halt the spread of the virus.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Monday the employees account for fewer than 10 per cent of city staff and the layoffs are temporary.
The 1,200 employees are being laid off so they can apply for provincial and federal supports put in place during the crisis, said city manager David Duckworth.
"I look forward to the time when we are able to reopen our facilities and restore impacted services, so we can bring our valued employees back to work," Duckworth said.
As of Monday, there were 690 recorded cases of COVID-19 in the province.
