Departments to cut billions in spending as budget projects tens of thousands of federal public service job losses by 2029

The federal public service is expected to employ roughly 330,000 people by 2028-29, down 10 per cent and 40,000 jobs compared to 2023-24. The budget says these numbers will be achieved by normal attrition through retirement, voluntary departures, and the Carney government’s spending review. 

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne called on most departments to achieve 15-per-cent cuts in the next three years, and his first budget offers a window as to how federal organizations are responding to his directive. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade