PWRDF slashes 2010-2011 budget by 26%

The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) has cut its 2010-2011 operating budget by 26 per cent.

In 2012, another 10 per cent will be cut in a bid to end deficit budgeting  and replenish its monetary reserve.

“As a result of the budget reductions, program delivery costs must be reduced,” said Cheryl Curtis, PWRDF executive director, in an email to staff at the Anglican Church of Canada’s national office in Toronto.

Consequently, several staff have been laid off and a number of positions restructured. The plan was approved on Jan. 8 by PWRDF’s Executive Committee, according to Curtis.

“The decision, though difficult, was unanimous,” she said. The brief announcement was not specific about revenues and expenditures forecast for the 2010 to 2012 budgets; neither did it detail the effect that staff restructuring would have on PWRDF’s programs.

In her email, Curtis said details of the new staff structure would be shared with national office staff at a meeting on Feb. 2.

Curtis as well as officers of PWRDF’s union were engaged in meetings and unavailable for comment.

Last year, PWRDF cut its budget by about $700,000, reducing it from $7.1 million to $6.3 million.