Prime Minister Carney’s expenditure review is throwing departments into chaos. They are scrambling to pull together proposals for cutting services, jobs, and spending, without any clear data as to how they should make these decisions.  

There has been no time for proper research or consultations required to make educated decisions on how to run the services relied upon by millions of people in Canada. 

Canada’s public services deserve long-term planning, not an endless loop of opportunistic cuts, dismantled services, and costly efforts to restore them once they’ve been deteriorated. When public service cuts are rushed, services like employment insurance, passport renewals, programs for Indigenous communities, and supports for veterans become harder to access. 

To strengthen these vital public services, governments must rely on research and fact-based decision-making. Otherwise, we could end up with rushed decisions, like cutting jobs and wiping out vital programs. 

PSAC has been calling on the government to undertake a comprehensive, long-term and government-wide staffing plan. In our most recent pre-budget submission to the House of Commons Finance Committee, we urged the government to conduct a review of staffing needs across all federal programs and services, and to work closely with workers and their unions to develop a unified staffing strategy.  

Governments of the past have failed at making the public service stronger by only working on short-term timelines, swinging between job cuts and workforce adjustments to last-minute mass hiring during crises. People in Canada deserve a government that believes in finding innovative and creative solutions to improve the federal public service, not one that repeats the same mistakes and expects different results. 

For Canada to have a stable public service that is there when people need it most, this government needs to build a sustainable plan to strengthen these services.