Justice department cutting up to 264 jobs as it faces ‘budgetary pressures'
The Canadian flag flies on the Peace Tower of Parliament Hill as pedestrians make their way along Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa on Nov. 9, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA — The federal department of justice is set to lay off up to 264 employees as it navigates what it calls 'significant budgetary pressures.'
Ian McLeod, a spokesperson for the department, says in an email that the department is taking 'difficult but necessary' steps to manage available resources, given ongoing budget pressures that 'can no longer be sustained.'
He says 264 positions in the department 'may no longer be required' and that the employees in those roles were notified this week.
McLeod says the department has implemented 'several measures' aimed at addressing budgetary pressures over the past year, including staffing restrictions.
The number of federal public service jobs dropped by almost 10,000 in the last year, marking the first decrease since 2015.
As of March 31, 357,965 people were working for the Government of Canada, down from 367,772 in 2024.
Between 2024 and 2025, the justice department lost 29 workers, going from 5,637 to 5,608 employees.
Hundreds of workers in other federal organizations — like the Canada Revenue Agency, Employment and Social Development Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada — also have been laid off recently.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has vowed to cap, not cut, the federal public service. He also has promised to launch a 'comprehensive' review of government spending with the aim of increasing its productivity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2026.
Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
18 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Canadian chip company Untether AI winding down operations
Promising Canadian chip startup Untether AI Corp. is winding down after failing to raise money earlier this year, and its engineering employees will be transferred to American company Advanced Micro Devices AMD-T. The arrangement is known as an 'acquihire,' in which one company strikes a deal with another to gain access to talent instead of products or services. Toronto-based Untether designed computer chips for artificial intelligence applications such as autonomous vehicles, robots and drones, and said its products were far more energy efficient than others on the market. But the company pivoted too late to the hardware market for powering generative AI applications, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to two sources familiar with the matter, and struggled to compete against the dominance of Nvidia Corp. NVDA-T in the chip market. Economic uncertainty owing to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff agenda contributed to difficulties raising new funds from investors this year, one of the sources said. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they are not authorized to discuss the matter. Untether said in a statement on its website Thursday that it had entered into a 'strategic agreement' with chipmaker AMD, which is based in California. 'While today marks the end of Untether AI's journey, we are proud of the pioneering research that underpinned our work,' the statement read. The company added it will no longer supply or support its hardware and software products. AMD said in a statement to trade publication CRN that it is acquiring 'a talented team of AI hardware and software engineers' from Untether. One source said the value of the deal would likely be less than US$100-million depending on how many employees agree to join AMD. The source added that Meta Platforms Inc., which is working on custom chips for AI applications, was also in talks with Untether. It is not clear what will happen to Untether's intellectual property, which is not part of the transaction, but the source said it could be sold separately. Neither Untether nor AMD immediately replied to a request for comment. From 2024: Toronto's Untether straps in for growth selling AI chips - but can it avoid getting crushed by Nvidia? Chris Walker, Untether's chief executive, left the company in May, according to his LinkedIn profile. He did not reply to The Globe and Mail. Untether was founded in 2018 and received funding from Intel Capital, Radical Ventures, GM Ventures and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The company has raised around $150-million. That means given the potential value of the deal, investors are likely not recouping the total amount they invested. However, losses will depend on when investors first put money into Untether. The company's products were built on the research of co-founder and former University of Toronto professor Martin Snelgrove, who pioneered a different computer chip architecture. The dominant approach to chip-making has followed a design laid out by mathematician and physicist John von Neumann in 1945, but that design wastes a lot of energy shuttling data around. Untether cut the distance data must travel by placing memory and processing units side-by-side on the hardware. Untether pursued the self-driving vehicle market and other systems that use a form of AI know as computer vision, which involves detecting and interpreting objects in videos and images. But the AI world changed with the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, as companies became obsessed with generative AI and chatbots. Nvidia became the most valuable publicly traded company in the world as large tech firms scrambled to purchase chips to install inside data centres for training AI models. Untether aimed to compete with Nvidia in the much larger market for powering AI inference, the term for using an AI model after it is built, such as asking a question of ChatGPT. Independent tests gave Untether's products high marks. MLCommons, an industry and academic consortium that benchmarks AI systems, found last year that one of Untether's chips was six times more energy efficient than competing products, and with lower latency, in one testing category. But Untether's push into the market for chips housed in data centres for generative AI may have come too late, especially given Nvidia's scale and reputation. The California-based company is worth close to US$3.5-trillion.
Globe and Mail
34 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Canada to seek agreements in global peace, energy security and new partnerships at G7, Carney says
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the G7 leaders' summit later this month in Alberta will see Canada seeking agreements in three key areas. Carney released a statement today saying Canada's top priority will be strengthening global peace and security, which includes countering foreign interference and transnational crime, as well as improving responses to wildfires. To spur economic growth, the prime minster says he will focus on improving energy security by fortifying supply chains for critical minerals and accelerating the use of artificial intelligence. As well, Carney says Canada will try to generate jobs by securing partnerships that will open new markets and generate big investments in infrastructure. The G7 summit is being held just outside Calgary. Here's who will be there and what these meetings achieve Carney defends decision to invite Indian PM to G7 summit in Alberta Meanwhile, Carney says other discussions will explore securing a lasting peace in Ukraine, and reaching out to partners beyond the G7 to 'build coalitions with reliable partners.' The meeting, to be held in Kananaskis, Alta., from June 15 to 17, is expected to bring together leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Italy. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted an invitation to the summit on Friday. 'Canada has what the world wants and the values to which others aspire,' Carney said in the statement. 'The G7 leaders' summit in Kananaskis is a moment for Canada to work with reliable partners to meet challenges with unity, purpose, and force. Canada is ready to lead.'
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
U.S. ambassador says Canadians facing device searches, detainment 'not a pattern'
The U.S. ambassador to Canada is pushing back on Ottawa's travel advice, saying his country doesn't search phones at the border and arguing some Americans travelling to Canada are having a tough time. "We welcome Canadians to come in and invest, to spend their hard-earned Canadian dollars at U.S. businesses," U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra told The Canadian Press in an interview Friday. "If a Canadian has had a disappointing experience coming into the United States, I'm not denying that it happened, but I'm saying it's an isolated event and it is not a pattern." In April, Ottawa updated its advice to Canadians travelling to the United States to warn them about the possibility they might be detained if denied entry. "Expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices," reads the new guidance. There have been reports of Canadians facing intensified scrutiny at the border, having phones searched and, in some cases, being detained. WATCH | Canadian visits to U.S. plummet over fears of new security measures: Canadian visits to U.S. plummet over fear of harsh new security measures 2 months ago Duration 2:08 Canadians are making fewer trips to the U.S. over fears about the Trump administration's harsh new security measures, including the heightened possibility of being detained. Statistics Canada says air travel is down 13 per cent, and land travel is down by almost a third. Hoekstra insisted concerns about device searches are not grounded in reality. "Coming to the U.S., that's a decision for the Canadians to make. Searching devices and all of that is not a well-founded fear. We don't do that. America is a welcoming place," he said. Americans also scrutinized at border: Hoekstra He said some Americans have expressed similar concerns about Canada. "I've heard that from Americans coming into Canada as well, OK? Saying, 'You know, we've not received a warm reception when we've gotten to Canadian customs,'" he said. When asked if these reports from American travellers involve arbitrary phone searches and lengthy detainment, Hoekstra said there are consular cases of Americans complaining to the embassy about the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). "We've said, 'OK this may have been an isolated event. There may have been a Canadian border person who was having a bad day, and thought they'd take it out on, you know, somebody across the border,'" he said. In a statement, the CBSA said its officers follow a code of conduct and the federal ethics code that both require them to treat everyone equally, and that the agency investigates any complaints of mistreatment. "Employees are expected to conduct themselves in a way that upholds the values of integrity, respect and professionalism at all times," wrote spokesperson Karine Martel. "Treating people with respect, dignity and fairness is fundamental to our border services officers' relationship with the public and a key part of this is serving all travellers in a non-discriminatory way." Hoekstra said travel to the U.S. is up to individuals. "If you decide that you're not going to come down or whatever, that's your decision and you're missing an opportunity. There are great things to see in America," Hoekstra said. He also noted the case of CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, who recently said she prepared to visit the U.S. last month as if she was "going to North Korea" — with a "burner phone" that didn't carry any personal information — only to experience a warm welcome. "It's like, [let's] get past the rhetoric and let's look at the real experiences that people are having here," Hoekstra said. Airlines have been cutting flights between Canada and the U.S. due to a slump in demand, and Flight Centre Travel Group Canada reported a nearly 40 per cent drop in flights between the two countries year-over-year in February. A survey in early May conducted by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies found 52 per cent of respondents feel that "it is no longer safe for all Canadians travelling to the United States," with 29 per cent disagreeing and 19 per cent saying they were unsure. Roughly the same proportion said they personally feel unwelcome in the U.S. 2SLGBTQ+ groups have opted against attending World Pride events in Washington and United Nations events in New York, citing scrutiny at the border as the Trump administration scales back protections for transgender and non-binary people.
