That figure comes from plans released by federal departments and agencies for 2026-27 outlining how they’ll shed billions of dollars to meet the government’s cost-cutting targets. Multiple part-time positions can make up one full-time equivalent position.

Rola Salem, spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, said departments were asked to include in their reports details about the savings for each fiscal year until 2028-29. That included a description of how the savings would be achieved, the number of reductions in full-time equivalent positions and any measures that weren’t included in the last budget.

Among the expected job losses are 1,793 positions at Public Services and Procurement Canada, 900 jobs at Statistics Canada and 942 at Health Canada.

While the plans were supposed to offer clarity on how programs will be affected by the spending review, some departments offered only vague commitments to “streamline” services or “modernize” operations. Others said they were still figuring out where to find savings.

Several departments and agencies offered more concrete details of their plans.

They include the Canadian Space Agency, which said it plans to terminate work on the LEAP Lunar Rover Mission.

The Canada Revenue Agency said it plans to wind down business units that are no longer connected to government priorities, like the units that processed the Digital Services Tax and consumer carbon pricing.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it’s reducing “non-core research activities” and consolidating laboratory services to focus on essential testing and avoid the need for costly upgrades.

It says it’s also decommissioning some vehicle washing stations and winding down functions that are no longer required to address health risks linked to the trade in pets.

Environment and Climate Change Canada says it’s reducing the Low Carbon Economy Fund and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says it’s winding down some programs outside of its core mandate, like the Agricultural Climate Solution Living Labs program.

The plan for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces says the military will retire selected fleets that are nearing the end of their service lives, face rising sustainment costs or are no longer align with operational requirements. It says it will also sell off or lease “underutilized, obsolete or surplus” properties.

Library and Archives Canada says it’s gradually reducing Access to Information and Privacy functions and the proactive review of historical records functions over a three-year period. It’s also discontinuing funding for the Documentary Heritage Communities Program.

Public Services and Procurement Canada says it’s winding down the activities of the Canada General Standards Board and reducing funding for Laboratories Canada.

Several departments — including Shared Services Canada, the Department of Justice, Public Services and Procurement Canada and Public Safety Canada — outlined plans to use artificial intelligence to increase efficiency or improve service delivery.

David McLaughlin, former president and CEO of the Institute on Governance, said the plans offer “broad strokes” of the impacts of the spending review. He said while the documents offer “some transparency” about the review, more details are needed.

He said those details will come either from a separate document from the Department of Finance or Treasury Board or from questioning by opposition parties.

“You can’t tell … at this moment, at this stage, what will be the actual impact of that in terms of a service on the ground to certain people, certain demographics or in certain regions,” said McLaughlin. “It’s going to have to come through the detailed committee hearings.”

Treasury Board spokesman Moe Kamal said in an email Saturday that as proposed in Budget 2025, reductions in the federal workforce will be managed through attrition and voluntary departures as much as possible.

“Through this initiative, approximately 68,000 public servants received notifications that they may be eligible to retire early with an immediate pension based on years of service, with no penalty for leaving early, subject to criteria set by the Treasury Board,” Kamal said, adding the government will keep employees updated on its plans as information becomes available.

Appearing before the House committee on government operations this month, Secretary of the Treasury Board Bill Matthews said departments and agencies were told to target programs and activities that were underperforming, overlapped with other programs or were not aligned with government priorities.

Michael Wernick, former clerk of the Privy Council, said the departmental plans “set the table” for parliamentary review.

He said members of Parliament will be trying to “squeeze out more detail” during committee meetings.

“The game to be played this year is the opposition will be trying to suss out details on what’s being cut, or in some cases augmented, looking for nuggets that they can go after and criticize,” Wernick said.

Conservative MP and Treasury Board critic Stephanie Kusie said the documents offer “no clear road map for the departments.”

“They’ve updated the (full-time equivalent) numbers, but it’s not clear as to line by line how they’re going to achieve this within each department,” she said. “Even though there is a decrease in the full-time equivalents, we’re still seeing an increase in spending.”

Kusie said it’s “concerning” that some departmental reports lack details about which programs and services will be affected by cuts. She said she expected more detailed information and a clearer path, given that departments have had months since the release of the budget.

“It makes me wonder, do they know what they’re doing or are they not quite certain as of yet?” she said. “I’m worried about it for transparency.”

“I definitely think after reviewing these plans that it merits more specific questions to departments.”

Federal unions are sounding the alarm over the planned job cuts. Public Service Alliance of Canada national president Sharon DeSousa said the cuts aren’t about efficiency but are an “attack on the public service itself.”

“By eliminating thousands of jobs, the government is weakening the very programs people in Canada rely on,” she said.

The post Federal departments, agencies to shed 12,000 full-time equivalent positions appeared first on CompassNews.

The federal government has committed to cutting the number of public service jobs by about 40,000 from a 2023-24 peak of 368,000 as it looks to find savings.

Departments and agencies across the public service have started notifying staff of coming job cuts.

Barb Couperus, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat — which oversees government operations — said the office does not collect information centrally on the impact of workforce adjustment on employment equity designated groups.

Equity groups include women, Indigenous people, people with disabilities and members of visible minorities.

Couperus said heads of departments are responsible for managing their workforces.

She said departments will continue to pay “close attention” to maintaining representation and meeting their obligations under the Employment Equity Act.

The act requires federally regulated employers, including the government itself, to take steps to eliminate employment barriers and maintain proportional representation in the workplace for members of equity groups.

During layoff periods, Couperus said, departments can prioritize keeping staff from equity groups if there are gaps in representation.

Nicholas Marcus Thompson, president and CEO of the Black Class Action Secretariat, said he is “disturbed” to learn the Treasury Board isn’t tracking the impacts of job cuts.

“What that suggests is that this is not a priority for this government,” he said.

Over the past five years, the government has hired approximately 5,000 Black workers throughout the entire federal public service, said Thompson. It also has increased the number of Black executives from around 99 in 2020 to more than 220, he said.

“What we’re seeing now is that those gains are being lost as a result of workforce adjustment,” said Thompson, adding his organization has started tracking data on workforce adjustment. “Many folks have reached out to us to find out what their rights are.

“Usually with workforce adjustment, the first to go are folks that were the last to come … So far our data is showing that, despite these equity gains, it’s now turning out to be equity losses.”

Thompson said his organization wants to see the government require equity impact assessments before workforce adjustment decisions are made. It also wants the government to be transparent about the process and publish data on which demographics are being affected.

Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty, said people with disabilities working in the public service will be feeling anxious.

“Generally speaking, a lot of times people with disabilities may be at an entry level position, so that makes them vulnerable,” said Khedr.

The most recent employment equity report for the public service says that as of March 2024, 9.7 per cent of federal executives were people with disabilities, up from 4.6 per cent in March 2019.

Khedr also said she’s unhappy about the lack of central tracking of the impacts of job cuts on equity groups.

“That then leaves it to the individual leadership within departments to make those critical decisions,” she said.

“It really depends on the leadership and their commitment to diversity and inclusion … There’s a risk that equity-denied groups might be more vulnerable in terms of who gets cut and who stays.”

The post Treasury Board not tracking impact of public service job cuts on equity groups appeared first on CompassNews.

The most recent federal budget outlined an early retirement incentive as part of the government’s ongoing effort to cut the number of public servants. The program, known as ERI, is designed to allow federal workers to retire early without a penalty to their pension.

But PSAC said the launch of the program has been “botched” and asked for it to be suspended, arguing it avoids obligations under workers’ collective agreements.

Sharon DeSousa, national PSAC president, said the rollout of the program was rushed and that unions need to be consulted before the government takes any further steps.

The federal government sent letters with information on its planned early retirement program to almost 68,000 public servants who may be eligible, but the government’s website says the program is not yet available.

A spokesperson for Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali said the department doesn’t know at this point how many people the government expects, or wants, to take up the early retirement offer.

The changes required to enact the program are contained in an omnibus budget implementation bill, and the government said it can’t be implemented until that bill comes into force.

Bill C-15 passed the House of Commons last week but still must clear the Senate before it can receive royal assent.

DeSousa said the union doesn’t oppose early retirement options but those efforts must be “negotiated, lawful and protect workers’ rights.”

“They rushed it out without consulting the union, before full details were available, and without properly explaining workforce adjustment rights,” said DeSousa. “No one should ever be pressured into giving up hard-won protections.”

The planned rollout of the early retirement program comes as the federal government is announcing thousands of job cuts in hopes of finding savings.

Ottawa is looking to cut program spending and administration costs by about $60 billion over the next five years through its “comprehensive expenditure review.”

The federal budget said the exercise will involve “restructuring operations and consolidating internal services.” It said it also will involve workforce adjustments and attrition to return the size of the public service to “a more sustainable level.”

The government plans to cut the number of public service jobs by about 40,000 from a peak of 368,000 in 2023-24.

The government says it’s trying to boost the rate of attrition and avoid a disproportionate effect of the cuts on younger workers by offering the voluntary early retirement program.

Anne Lavergne received a letter in January indicating her administrative position at Health Canada is being cut.

Lavergne, who has been a public servant for 26 years, said she believes she has since found someone willing to voluntarily leave the public service to swap positions with her, but that the timing of the early retirement program made it much more difficult to do so.

“It’s delaying the decision of some people to alternate with people affected by workforce adjustment because they’re waiting to see what deal the retirement package might hold,” she said. “Because they announced it but did not produce it, it’s stopping others from making a decision.”

If it comes into force, ERI would be available to workers with at least 10 years of employment in the public service, and at least two years of pensionable service. To be eligible, workers must be either at least 50 years old and have joined the public service pension plan before 2013, or be at least 55 years old and have joined the plan after Jan. 1, 2013.

The pension rules currently mean anyone who retires before the pension age and service requirements are met would have their pension cut by five per cent for every year they retire early. Under the ERI, there would be no such reduction, and the annual pension amount will be calculated based on total years of pensionable service before they retired.

Before accepting an application for an employee under ERI, department heads must confirm their organization has to reduce its workforce, that it can maintain services to Canadians and meet both current and future operational and business requirements.

The post Union files grievance, asks feds to suspend early retirement program appeared first on CompassNews.

Paramedics had been trying to resuscitate the man on the way to the hospital, said Ottawa Paramedic Service spokesperson Marc-Antoine Deschamps.

The crash happened at the corner of Rideau and Cobourg streets, where a centre called The Drop-In, run by Capital City Mission, offers meals, coffee and clothing to people in need.

Two other men were hospitalized with critical but non-life-threatening injuries and another pedestrian, a woman, was in stable condition, Deschamps said.

He said the man who drove the SUV sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was hospitalized in stable condition.

The grey SUV with a smashed front end remained on the sidewalk in front of the building for several hours, surrounded by debris and snow.

The circumstances of the crash, including if weather played a role, remain unclear, Ottawa police Const. Fern John-Simon told reporters at the scene.

Environment Canada had issued a special weather statement for the Ottawa region warning of localized bursts of heavy snow causing reduced visibility on the roads.

Feras Jarmans, an employee of a nearby shawarma restaurant, said he heard the loud crash of the SUV colliding with the building.

Jarmans described a gory scene in the aftermath of the crash. He said the driver left the vehicle visibly shaken and was crying on the sidewalk as police arrived.

Police are asking the public to steer clear of the area. Rideau Street between Cobourg and Charlotte streets will be closed for some time as the investigation continues, John-Simon said.

“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victim who passed,” John-Simon added.

The crash caused “significant damage” to the building, said Ottawa Fire Services spokesperson Nick DeFazio.

The building is not in imminent danger of collapse, but firefighters will ensure it is shored up after police conclude their on-scene investigation, DeFazio added.

Police are asking anyone who witnessed the crash or may have footage of the incident to contact authorities.

The post One dead, four injured after vehicle crashes into Ottawa building: police appeared first on CompassNews.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress held an event to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It was one of 60 gatherings planned for across the country in the days around the anniversary.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine, by land, sea and air. Four years later, more than a million people have been killed and millions more displaced.

Maryna Shum moved from Kyiv to Canada in 2022, and was among the demonstrators on Parliament Hill on Sunday.

Off the side of the stage, she held a large makeshift helmet replicating the one Heraskevych planned to wear, which led to his disqualification from the Olympic skeleton competition

“It’s about honour. It’s about courage,” Shum told The Canadian Press on why the helmet — which took her two days, a balloon, and a roll of duct tape to make — was an important symbol to bring to the rally.

“He was brave enough to just sacrifice his possible medals. It’s not a surrender.”

The International Olympic Committee, and the sport’s international governing body, barred Heraskevych from competing after ruling his helmet — depicting more than 20 athletes and coaches killed since Russia’s invasion — violated the IOC’s rules on athlete expression.

“An athlete who chose the remembrance versus the medals … this too is the cost of this war,” said Maryna Vyatkina, the president of the Ottawa branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

“When we are talking about Olympics, bans on participation, about neutrality in sport, you must remember this helmet. There is no neutrality in aggression. And there is no neutrality in injustice.”

Sen. Rebecca Patterson was one of several Canadian political figures at Sunday’s rally.

Representatives — some among them ambassadors — from the embassies of Spain, Latvia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Portugal, Slovakia, Lithuania, Denmark and Greece were also in attendance, organizers said.

Patterson pointed to Shum’s makeshift helmet as a “vital message of truth” that “war is devastating.”

“Honouring the dead should not be controversial. Remembering fallen teammates is not propaganda or political,” Patterson told the crowd.

“It is actually grief made visible. And that helmet, this helmet, carries a truth that statistics cannot convey: that every loss is personal, every face is a life interrupted. Shame on the IOC for such a disgraceful decision.”

Last week marked the third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which the U.S. has helped organize. Central to a peace deal for Russia is control of land in Ukraine, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said his country would not surrender.

“Sustained peace is far more complex than a real estate deal,” Patterson told the crowd on Parliament Hill.

Liberal MP Mona Fortier was also among the speakers at the event, highlighting the more than $20 billion the Canadian government has provided in support for Ukraine. Fortier called Russia’s targeting of Ukrainian energy infrastructure “abhorrent.”

Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar followed Fortier, and said Canada’s support for Ukraine “remains unwavering and absolute.”

The post Ukraine Olympian’s banned skeleton helmet a rallying symbol at Ottawa demonstration appeared first on CompassNews.

The corridor between Quebec City and Toronto aims to carry up to 24 million riders annually by 2055 to boost economic growth, foster tourism and expand access to jobs by slashing travel times on dedicated electric tracks.

But as plans become clearer, so too does the need for large amounts of energy to power the line. Experts say planning needs to start now.

The proposed network would host 72 trains a day running along a 1,000-kilometre track at speeds of up to 300 km/h. It would make for a three-hour trip between the country’s two largest cities and less than an hour between Montreal and Ottawa.

Construction on the first phase between Ottawa and Montreal is currently expected to start in 2029 or 2030. Conceived as a public-private partnership, Crown corporation Alto will oversee the project while a consortium dubbed Cadence will design, build and operate the line.

Alto CEO Martin Imbleau is aware of the challenge the line could pose to already burdened power grids. But he says part of the project’s design phase now underway with utilities looks to head off any potential power shortages.

“It’s a significant block,” Imbleau said in an interview, referring to the amount of energy the line would consume daily.

“But we’re already in discussion with Hydro-Québec to make sure the capacity is there, and there’s no issue either in Ontario.” At least not at the moment.

Ontario expects electricity demand to soar 75 per cent by 2050, while Hydro-Québec aims to boost capacity by 100 per cent within a quarter century, as grids come under strain from artificial intelligence processing sites, electric vehicles and population growth.

The planned rail line would drain between one and three per cent of Ontario and Quebec’s current electrical capacity, said University of Ottawa associate professor Ryan Katz-Rosene. In percentage terms, that puts it on a rough par with steel plants or AI data centres in Ontario, or a large aluminum smelter in Quebec.

That owes partly to the sheer number of trains on the tracks — nearly twice Via Rail’s current average of 39 along the various legs of the Quebec City-Toronto corridor.

Speed plays a big role too. Approaching 300 km/h, the trains would require roughly double the energy of standard electric ones, given the power needed to reach high velocity and sustain it in the face of much greater drag.

Hence the need for high-capacity electrical substations for exclusive use by the rail line along the corridor.

Imbleau expects to build up to a dozen substations, which act as intermediaries between the grid and the railway, allowing electricity to be transmitted at different voltages.

“I haven’t done the calculations on a yearly basis, but at any one point in time we need 50 megawatts of power to supply a train running at 300 kilometres safely,” Imbleau said.

Asked Katz-Rosene: “Each of those little substations is like powering a small town. So then the question becomes, can the existing grid handle it?”

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press through an access-to-information request point to where that power will flow from.

One-third would come from Hydro-Québec and the rest from Ontario’s Hydro One, according to an overview from a 2023 study by Alto’s precursor. At that point, the project was still envisioned as high-frequency rail — with speeds of only up to 200 km/h — rather than high-speed rail and its much heftier electrical demands. But experts expect the proportions from the two provinces to remain roughly the same.

While Alto has declined to lay out a hard timeline, it has projected passenger figures for 2055. By then, many other sectors will already be guzzling energy from the provinces’ grids.

And the need for more juice is urgent. Last month, extreme cold forced Hydro-Québec to temporarily suspend its energy exports to Massachusetts. There is also less water in the utility’s reservoirs at the moment due to a three-year drought.

Once overflowing with excess electricity, Hydro-Québec has rejected several industrial development projects that would have required 21,500 megawatts of power — less than half of the rail line’s threshold — because it lacked the energy to supply them.

In Ontario, pressure on the grid driven in part by EV battery plants and data centres has caused demand projections for the coming decades to skyrocket. Industrial demand in the province is expected to grow 58 per cent by 2035, the Independent Electricity System Operator said in October 2024, marking a big leap from outlooks the year prior.

Experts say they hope the emissions reduction achieved as travellers abandon cars and planes for trains will make up for the high electricity consumption.

Construction of the rail line, with all of its attendant carbon emissions, habitat erosion and use of raw material — not least a 1,000-kilometre ribbon of steel, whose production is emissions-intensive — will take a hefty environmental toll.

“Building something of this scale requires huge amounts of ridership in order to cover those proverbial carbon costs,” said Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto.

“The way you pay off that bill, so to speak, is by having a ton of people ride this and transfer from more polluting modes of transportation,” he said.

“If it’s people shifting from the bus and the existing train, that’s actually not a huge win for the environment.”

As for financial costs, no business case specifying the precise route, budget, ridership forecast and fare projections has been presented to the public, though one is expected in the coming years.

Alto estimates the full project will cost between $60 billion and $90 billion. The government has not yet made a final decision approving funding for the entire rail line.

Hydro-Québec and Hydro One say they’ve had preliminary talks with Alto, but that specific energy use projections have not yet been made because a precise route remains to be finalized.

“Once Alto identifies its energy needs for the project, Hydro One, along with the province’s energy planner the Independent Electricity System Operator, will have a clearer understanding of potential impacts to the electricity system and the requirements to energize this project,” said Tiziana Baccega Rosa, a spokeswoman for the provincial utility, in an email.

The post High-speed rail line would demand big slice of energy grids already under pressure appeared first on CompassNews.

The federal government is ordering public servants to be in the office at least four days a week starting in July, while executives are expected to return to the office full-time in May.

Sharon DeSousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the union has filed five unfair labour practice complaints with the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board in response to the government’s decision.

“We’re currently in bargaining and the employer is trying to change the working conditions of our members, which is against the law,” DeSousa said.

A statement from the union released Thursday said it would fight the decision “every step of the way.”

“I am hoping the government of Canada understands that they are not above the law,” DeSousa said Friday. “Everything is on the table and we’re looking at what actions to take next.”

The federal directive applies to public servants working in the core departments and agencies under Treasury Board, though the Canada Revenue Agency has said already it intends to follow the same approach.

The Treasury Board said other federal agencies, like the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, are “strongly encouraged” to follow the same rules.

Adam Blondin, a spokesperson for the Canada Revenue Agency, said in an email Friday the CRA is reviewing how the requirement will be implemented across its workforce.

Remote work rules have been an ongoing source of friction in the public service since COVID-19 forced most federal workers to work remotely in 2020.

After public health restrictions began to ease, the federal government moved in 2023 to have workers return to the office two to three days a week.

The current rule, in place since September 2024, requires public servants to work a minimum of three days a week in-office, with executives in office four days per week.

Thursday’s order updates that rule.

Other federal unions have said they’re also “not ruling anything out” when it comes to fighting for remote work.

Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, said his union’s priority is to go into contract negotiations this summer “organized and ready to win” telework rights in its next collective agreement.

“We are not ruling anything out because we know that this is an issue that has a major impact, not only on the lives and working conditions of our members but also Canadian taxpayers,” said Prier.

Sean O’Reilly, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said the union is looking at all options to push back against the decision. He said those options include rallies or reaching out to members of Parliament.

O’Reilly said he’s still open to discussing in-office rules with the government but “it’s really hard not to escalate when the workers are ignored.”

As the union enters contract negotiations, O’Reilly said this decision might lead to a strike down the road.

“It wouldn’t be in the next couple of months, but it depends where those negotiations go. It depends on when we reach an impasse with the employer and then we’ll be reexamining our options,” he said.

Gilles LeVasseur, professor of management and law at the University of Ottawa, said conditions of work for employees is always under the authority of the employer.

“If they decide to bring people back four or five days in a given week, that is the prerogative of the employer,” he said.

LeVasseur argued the union didn’t do its job properly when it had its chance to negotiate telework arrangements when many of its members were on strike in 2023.

He added that the telework agreement made between the union and the government, which was made outside of the collective agreement, was too general.

While the board may have recommendations for the government, LeVasseur said it’s unlikely it will override the government’s decision.

NDP member of Parliament Heather McPherson raised concerns about the timing of the decision Friday, pointing out that thousands of public servants are facing job cuts.

“It’s a bad choice by this government,” she said. “It’s one more indication that (Prime Minister) Mark Carney doesn’t actually care about the public servants that are running this country.”

Departments and agencies across the public service have started notifying staff of coming job cuts as the government looks to cut program spending and administration costs by about $60 billion over the next five years through its “comprehensive expenditure review.”

The review will see the elimination of about 40,000 public service jobs — out of a peak workforce of 368,000 in 2023-24 — and of 1,000 executive positions over the next two years.

A government website providing data on workforce reductions in the core public service up to the end of January says it’s currently targeting a reduction of 8,230 employee positions and 425 executive positions across 24 departments through the workforce adjustment or career transition processes.

It says 15,755 employee positions and 642 executive positions will be eliminated, in part through attrition and vacated positions.

The federal government has not yet confirmed the number of jobs being eliminated for some departments.

Treasury Board said the government will engage with unions to implement the new return-to-office plan to work out things like assigned seating and occupational health and safety.

The post Union files complaints as feds increase public servants’ in-office time appeared first on CompassNews.

A Treasury Board message to deputy department heads published Thursday said executives will have to work on-site five days per week starting May 4. All other employees must be in the office four days a week as of July 6.

The directive applies to public servants working in the core departments and agencies under Treasury Board, though the government said other federal agencies, which would include the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, are “strongly encouraged” to take a similar approach.

Remote work rules have been an ongoing issue in the public service since COVID-19 forced most federal workers to work remotely in 2020. After public health restrictions began to ease, the federal government moved in 2023 to have workers return to the office two to three days a week.

The current rule, in place since September 2024, requires public servants to work a minimum of three days a week in-office, with executives in office four days per week.

Thursday’s order updates that rule.

“The Government has put forward ambitious plans to deliver on priorities for Canadians and to strengthen our country,” said the Treasury Board message. “Working together onsite is an essential foundation of the strong teams, collaboration and culture needed during this pivotal moment and beyond.”

The message was signed by Treasury Board secretary Bill Matthews, chief human resources officer Jacqueline Bogden and associate chief human resources officer Francis Trudel.

It said the government will engage with unions to implement the plan, with discussions to focus on issues like assigned seating and occupational health and safety.

The message also said Public Services and Procurement Canada will work closely with departments to ensure there is enough office space for all employees.

Public Services and Procurement Canada released its own statement Thursday, stating that it will work with client organizations to “address the new onsite presence requirements as it pertains to office space.”

“In locations where sufficient space is not available, we will work to identify potential solutions as quickly as possible,” the statement read.

Sean O’Reilly, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, told The Canadian Press he finds the government’s decision “insulting and disrespectful.”

“I would like to say I was surprised but I’m not,” said O’Reilly, who was made aware of the move less than an hour before the message went out to employees. “I’m really beside myself on just why the decision is being made now.”

O’Reilly said he’s skeptical about the discussions the government will have with bargaining agents, adding that his union will be “vocal” about the issue and push back on the government.

“I don’t know how this helps the Government of Canada. It doesn’t save them money. This doesn’t increase productivity,” he said. “I don’t see how this helps my members or how it helps the Canadian people.”

Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, said the announcement demonstrates that the government has “both a willful disregard for reality and absolute contempt for its employees and taxpayers.”

“As thousands of public servants are watching their jobs disappear and Canadians are watching health and other programs get gutted, this government is committing to making public servants less productive while wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money,” Prier said. “If workers needed another sign that this government can’t be trusted, this is it.”

The union said the decision comes on the heels of a recent ruling by the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board that telework can be negotiated at the bargaining table. It said that as bargaining units begin new contract negotiations this year, this sets the stage for “completely avoidable conflict.”

Sharon DeSousa, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said the four-day in-office mandate announced by the federal government is “a slap in the face” to all federal public service workers.

“It is insulting for any employer, let alone the government, to change the conditions of work while its workers are in bargaining,” DeSousa said.

DeSousa said altering the in-office mandate in the middle of ongoing negotiations is grounds for legal action and that “nothing is off the table,” noting the union is currently examining all options.

“Prime Minister Carney has made it clear where his priorities lie, and they aren’t with workers,” DeSousa said.

The message to employees said more information will be shared “in due course.”

The post Public servants ordered to work in office 4 days a week as of July appeared first on CompassNews.

The Agriculture Union said it “categorically denounces” the cuts, arguing they point toward a “looming food safety crisis” in Canada.

The union said the cuts are a “massive blow that cannot be absorbed by an already struggling agency.”

The number of jobs at CFIA has decreased already over the last few years and a cut of another 1,371 positions would amount to more than one-fifth of the workforce.

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat data shows the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had 6,380 employees as of March 31, 2025, down from 6,833 employees in 2024 and 6,929 in 2023.

The CFIA has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Milton Dyck, national president of the Agriculture Union, said cuts to food safety cause more people to get sick from preventable food-borne illnesses and more poultry and livestock to die from avian flu and other diseases, undermining the food production industry.

“Fewer CFIA inspectors means fewer frontline workers to catch food that should be recalled,” said Dyck in a news release.

“And food recalls increased by 150 (per cent) over the last decade. You can do math, and it doesn’t look good. Food safety experts have been warning us that CFIA can’t take any more hits, but the government isn’t listening. They are putting short-term savings over the health of our country.”

More than 10,000 federal public servants have received notices this month warning that their jobs may be cut, say the unions representing them.

They include workers in several departments and agencies, like Global Affairs Canada, Transport Canada, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Health Canada.

Workforce adjustment notices tell employees their jobs may be affected by cuts, though it’s not clear how many of those who received the notices ultimately will be laid off.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada said the government’s pursuit of public service cuts is “reckless” and is calling on Ottawa to issue a staffing plan.

“Setting a blanket goal of budget reductions for departments without an overview of the entire public service is anything but fiscally responsible,” said the union’s president Sharon DeSousa. “PSAC has been calling for a long-term government-wide staffing plan for years.”

DeSousa said the job cuts are going to put Canadians’ safety at risk, noting that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is losing over 20 percent of its workforce.

“On top of years of under-staffing, that means fewer food safety inspectors and slower responses to food-borne illnesses outbreaks,” she said.

DeSousa also pointed to cuts at other departments, including Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The Agriculture Union said earlier this week that Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is shutting down seven research farms and centres, including the Nappan Research Farm in Nova Scotia and the Indian Head Research Farm in Saskatchewan, two of the five original research farms established by the Canadian government in 1887.

“This is over a century of public knowledge and expertise being erased,” said DeSousa.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada gathered its members for a rally in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday to denounce public service cuts.

Anne Lavergne, who was at the rally, said she received a letter last week indicating her position at Health Canada is being cut. She said she has about a year to either find another job at her level or go on unemployment insurance.

Lavergne, who has been a public servant for 26 years, said she worked on the cyber security team at Health Canada doing administrative duties.

“They are gutting the wrong people, in my opinion,” she said. “They should be cutting on the real estate budgets, they should be cutting at higher up positions more than they have.”

Ottawa is looking to cut program spending and administration costs by about $60 billion over the next five years through its “comprehensive expenditure review.”

The government plans to cut the number of public service jobs by about 40,000 from a peak of 368,000 in 2023-24.

The plan will see a reduction of 1,000 executive positions over the next two years, and a 20 per cent cut to spending on management and consulting services over three years.

The federal government has sent letters with information on its planned early retirement program to almost 68,000 public servants who may be eligible. The federal budget said the government intends to implement the one-year early retirement program as soon as this month.

The post Food inspection agency to cut more than 1,300 jobs, says union appeared first on CompassNews.

However, the frigid temperatures Ontarians are currently experiencing likely aren’t going away any time soon.

Environment Canada meteorologist Mitchell Meredith said cold warnings could return to large swaths of southern Ontario next Saturday as the next wave of cold air comes in.

Sub-zero temperatures in southern Ontario could stick around until mid-to-late-February, Meredith said, marking a noticeable long stretch of cold temperatures not seen in the region in recent years.

In Toronto and Ottawa, for instance, temperatures have been below freezing since Jan. 18. By the time temperatures rise above 0 C, those cities may have a month or more of continuous freezing temperatures in the books, the meteorologist said.

The current cold snap is a consequence of the polar vortex, according to Meredith, a large area of frigid Arctic air that commonly stretches south during the winter and causes temperatures to plummet in Central Canada.

Record snowfall in Toronto may also be dragging temperatures down in Ontario’s capital.

“When you get a lot of snowpack and ice on the ground, that can also help keep things cold,” Meredith said.

Some Torontonians, undeterred by the cold, have been continuing to take advantage of the snow leftover from last Sunday’s historic storm.

Nicolas Zucco, an urban planning consultant from Toronto, was armed with a red toboggan Saturday afternoon, ready to sled again for the first time since he was a kid.

Zucco said he’s been mostly staying at home amid the cold warnings but was drawn outside by mostly sunny conditions on Saturday.

“It definitely feels like the coldest winter in Toronto we’ve had for a long time,” he said. “But it’s too depressing if you stay at home.”

Toronto could see a wind chill of -25 overnight before temperatures are forecasted to warm to a high of -8 C  Sunday, Meredith said. In Ottawa, temperatures were expected to drop to -31 with wind chill overnight before rising to a high of -11 C Sunday.

As cold warnings persist in southern Ontario, Environment Canada has warned of frostbite, which can develop within minutes on exposed skin and cause numbness, a tingling sensation or swelling.

The post Cold alerts could soon break in southern Ontario, but predicted to return next week appeared first on CompassNews.