Former Privy Council clerk Michael Wernick says awarding a bonus involves ‘a fairly sophisticated conversation’ that considers how they achieved key targets. ‘Did you leave a trail of bodies behind you … or did you strengthen your team?’
Its software replacement will fail again if the government doesn’t address the root causes: lack of flexibility and connectivity with existing systems.
Overall hiring has decreased by 32 per cent and promotions by 18 per cent compared to the year before. This analysis aims to provide an initial assessment of cuts on employment equity and whether the data substantiates concerns raised by unions and advocates.
‘The fact that careful and deliberate steps have not been taken to ensure that employment equity groups are not disproportionately harmed by these historic austerity measures tells us everything we need to know about our employer,’ says union leader Nathan Prier.
With thousands of jobs cut entirely from the public service and thousands more retiring early, ‘that could put operations, in some places, at risk,’ warns union leader Pamela Isfeld, noting the early retirement program has already seen significant interest.
The Canada Revenue Agency says it will expand the use of artificial intelligence in detecting fraud and ensuring compliance, but unions representing affected workers say job cuts will hinder efforts to go after tax cheats.
The most recent report on diversity in the public service says hiring dipped by 40 per cent last year as the bureaucracy began reversing course on a decade of significant growth. But this appears to have had limited impact on equity efforts.
The Treasury Board wants to ignore the basic faults with current access, and award itself by cutting away more records and having fewer orders and users.
Senior government official Alex Benay says he’s ‘pretty comfortable’ the Phoenix pay system can handle the ‘volume’ of severance payouts as the public service faces a swell job cuts.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada says its members have had prolonged issues since the federal government transferred the Public Service Health Care Plan from Sun life to Canada Life in July 2023.
NDP MP Heather McPherson says introducing the new four-day, in-office mandate for the core public service during widespread job cuts is ‘a bad choice’ by the Liberal government.
Key legislation that offers early retirement to some public servants is tied to the budget implementation bill, but Senator Peter Boehm, a former longtime public servant and deputy minister, said officials began planning for job reductions ‘some time ago’ and aren’t waiting for legislation to go through.
Treasury Board Secretariat official Jenelle Power said the bill would not allow ministers to exempt people or businesses from law for ‘broad policy purposes,’ and there are ‘strict limitations’ to such legal exceptions, including time limits.
Anne Lavergne is just one of 22,000 workers from across the federal public service who have received notices that their job may be at risk.
Since the 2025 budget was tabled, more than 22,000 staff and 882 executives in 24 departments have been notified they may be affected by a workforce adjustment.
Canada’s Public Sector Integrity Commissioner says the office is struggling to handle ‘unprecedented numbers’ of wrongdoing and reprisal cases, and ‘resources have not kept pace, causing detrimental delays to investigations.’
Approximately 8,500 public servants were notified this week that they may be impacted by potential job cuts, and more than 17,000 such notifications have gone out since December, public sector unions have confirmed.
In a recent letter, the Senate Internal Economy Committee asked the Treasury Board president to revisit the idea of switching the pension plan so that it’s funded by both employee and employer contributions, as well as investment earnings.
The Correctional Service and Fisheries and Oceans are among the five affected, but the Parliamentary Budget Office is now requesting information about how all departments will achieve the projected $60-billion in spending cuts by the end of the decade.
With Treasury Board once again handling the first stage of the ATI review, you can be sure of more delays, more exemptions proposed, and more people being excluded from using access to information.
Public property losses increased almost tenfold between 2023-24 and 2024-25—once again driven by a natural disaster—to total $374.8-million.
Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada president Sean O’Reilly says he’s worried the incentive will lead to a ‘mass exodus’ of skilled government workers.
The ‘volume and specificity’ of full-time return-to-office rumours ‘warrant immediate clarity from Treasury Board’ says union president Sean O’Reilly.
Public Services and Procurement Canada says the 45-day review into finding savings through federal contracting ‘was completed on schedule’ and that results will be ‘communicated in due course.’
Program expenses for the year totalled $489.9-billion, while public debt charges reached $53.4-billion.
