OTTAWA — Canada’s largest public sector union is warning that any cuts to federal employees, as the Liberal government looks to shrink spending, will mean slower, lower-quality services for people seeking passports, employment insurance and veterans benefits.
Sharon DeSousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), said Prime Minister Mark Carney should stick with his campaign promise to “cap” the federal public service — not cut it.
However, Carney’s senior-most minister this week
directed cabinet to find a total of 15 per cent in spending cuts in their departments by 2028-29
. The direction from Finance Minister
François-Philippe
Champagne spelled out cuts of 7.5 per cent by 2026–27, an additional 2.5 per cent cut by 2027–28, and another five per cent on top of that by 2028–29. The target will amount to $25 billion, a government official confirmed to National Post.
Any cuts to staff, said DeSousa, will have consequences.
“What it actually means is that you’re looking to cut jobs, which means cutting services — end of story,” DeSousa said. “It will mean longer wait times. It means that we’re not going to be able to deliver on the programs that are a priority to us, and I think everyone is going to be impacted.”
“What we’re talking about is employment insurance. We’re talking about veterans who are looking for services. We’re talking about an aging population who is looking to get guidance as to how to receive their benefits. It’s going to impact people looking for passports.”
“There’s not one area that’s not going to be affected,” she added.
Mohammad Kamal, director of communications to the President of the Treasury Board, did said the government’s spending review is requesting that all departments “bring forward savings proposals by targeting programs and activities that are underperforming, not core to the federal mandate, duplicative, or misaligned with government priorities.”
There are exceptions, however: the Department of National Defence, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be subject to a “lower savings target” of two per cent over those three years, said Kamal.
The process does not apply to agents of Parliament — such as the auditor general and the parliamentary budget officer, the courts administration service and the office of the registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada — to “preserve their independence,” he said.
Anxiety among federal public servants is reportedly already high. DeSousa said 10,000 jobs were cut just last year, and an estimated 2,000 to 7,000 more jobs could be on the chopping block for this year as well. That includes contracts at the Canada Revenue Agency, as well as the departments of employment and immigration that are not being renewed, she said.
“Right now, if you try to call Canada Revenue Agency, less than five per cent of the calls are being picked up. They don’t have enough people to do this,” she claimed.
While the government has vowed to not touch transfers to individuals and provinces, or social programs such as child care and dental care, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak warned Indigenous services should be exempt from the cuts as well.
“I think health care for Canadians and Indian Affairs should never be cut back,” said Woodhouse Nepinak in an interview. “And I think because the gaps are so huge, you don’t want to further and widen the gap on First Nations people by cutting services and programs very much needed to make this country be a better place.”
DeSousa said the government can look at different ways of finding efficiencies in delivering services to Canadians while still redirecting money to the government’s core priorities.
“There’s a different way that we can do this. It doesn’t have to be done like previous administrations, where it starts off with just this lazy approach of austerity and cutting jobs… I don’t think it needs to be at the expense of people who rely on those services.”
DeSousa suggested reducing the amount departments and agencies spend on outside consultants, which would save millions of dollars each year, but also reverse the return-to-office mandate to free up buildings so they can be repurposed for other initiatives, such as low-income housing, or sold to generate potentially billions of dollars in savings.
“What we’re trying to do is to provide practical solutions that the government can, in fact, look at so that it doesn’t make the sacrifices on the programs and services, and to get them to understand the actual impact their decision-making is going to have, and how it’s going to affect people residing in Canada who depend on them,” she said.
“For us, it’s about fighting for their services.”
National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com
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