Public sector union warns Carney against reducing government staff to cut spending

Edmonton Journal

11-07-2025

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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.
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'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.
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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.
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'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.'
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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.
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'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.'
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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.
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'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.