Canada’s federal government in Ottawa plans to start the new year by issuing layoff notices to civil servants.
Several federal departments will begin notifying public servants in January if their jobs are impacted by plans to reduce the government’s workforce by 28,000 positions.
The job cuts come as Ottawa seeks to find $60 billion in cost savings over the next four years, as outlined in the 2025 federal budget that was tabled on Nov. 5.
Departments that are expected to be impacted by the job cuts include Natural Resources, Shared Services, Public Services and Procurement, Global Affairs, and Statistics Canada, among others.
The Liberal government wants to reduce the size of the federal public service by 40,000 jobs from its peak of 367,772 employees in March 2024 to 330,000 by 2028-29.
There were 357,965 federal civil servants employed in Ottawa and across Canada as of March 31, 2025.
Ottawa is hoping to eliminate 12,000 civil servant positions, including 350 executive positions, through attrition and early retirement packages.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the union that represents federal workers, has raised concerns about the planned cuts and vowed to fight some efforts to reduce the workforce.
In a written statement, PSAC said, “Our goal is to minimize the impacts on our employees. We will use all the tools at our disposal, including attrition and the existing workforce adjustment provisions that have been co-developed or negotiated with the bargaining agents.”
