Recovery, that is what the City of Dryden is trying to do following the revelation it had lost a fifth of its public works workforce during the last quarter of 2023.

Chief Administrative Officer Roger Nesbitt says it occurred when Dryden Fibre held a hiring fair.

“That’s fairly devastating from a standpoint of continuation of our operations and service provision, when we lose that number of employees to a single employer in the community at one time.”

Nesbitt made the remarks to council late last month, noting from a people perspective the loss amounts to five people, and in an email to Acadia Broadcasting added a sixth employee had also moved on to the forestry sector, increasing the loss to almost 25 percent.

For several years Dryden has seen extremely high turnover which has taken its toll on the municipality.

“Its hard to sustain operations when we’re constantly recruiting and trying to fill vacancies.”

As a result this has had across the board impacts from increased operating costs to service quality and delivery delays.