The Manitoba government is asking for a 15 percent cut in management levels, as part of its plan to deal with a “top-heavy” public sector.

Finance Minister Scott Fielding says “taxpayer dollars should be prioritized on front-line services-next to the student, the ratepayer and the customer-for better outcomes.”

The province is also telling Crown corporations, post-secondary institutions and school divisions to control the amount of compensation paid to executives. The province will implement a 1.75 percent cap over four years, and bringing in outside consultants to review current salaries.

In 2016, Manitoba Hydro, MPI, and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries were instructed to cut upper management by 15 percent as an effort by the government to reduce the deficit.

A K-12 education review is set to be completed in the next few months, and officials have said that all options are on the table to try and improve grades and control costs. Those steps may include the removal or the reduction of the number of school boards in the province.

Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen says that any money that is saved from making cuts will be put back into education.

“Clearly we are asking school divisions to live within the means of taxpayers and live within the means of the ability for Manitobans to pay,” said Goertzen.

The President of the Manitoba School Boards Association says smaller school divisions could have issues making the directives.

Goertzen said that school divisions will be able to choose how to use the money, but the government wants it to go to classrooms and the front lines.