The federal government intends to trim the public service by 30,000 jobs.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Federal departments are highlighting that planned job cuts will also affect senior managers as thousands of public servants receive letters informing them that their positions might be eliminated.
Deputy ministers from several departments have sent e-mails to staff in recent days that break down targets for job reductions for both executive and non-executive members.
The department-level targets flow from an overall plan announced in the Nov. 4 budget, which said the government would reduce the size of the public service by 30,000 positions, in addition to a recent 10,000 cut from a peak in 2024.
The budget said the new reduction would include cuts to 1,000 executive positions over two years.
It is all part of a five-year plan to find nearly $60-billion in internal savings by reversing the growth in government ranks since the peak of the pandemic.
The number of senior managers in the public service has grown at a faster rate than the number of non-executives over the past decade, prompting concern that the federal bureaucracy is becoming top heavy.
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There were 9,340 executives as of last year, up from 6,340 in 2015, a 47-per-cent increase.
In contrast, the number of non-executives was 348,625, up from 250,694, a 39-per-cent increase.
Yazmine Laroche, a former deputy minister who retired in 2022 from the public service, said there is room to find savings among the management ranks.
“There are too many executive levels. They have five when they don’t need more than three,” she told The Globe and Mail in an e-mail exchange. She also said there are “far too many executives” at the central agencies such as the Privy Council Office, Finance Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat.
“We have seen consistent growth in the executive ranks over the last 10 years, greater than the non-executive growth,” she said. ”I would argue that all of this has created confusion, overlap and reduced accountability.”
Ms. Laroche also said she has deep empathy for the many public servants who are going through the reduction exercise.
“This is a very difficult time,” she said. “On the one hand, you are working hard to support government priorities. On the other, you worry about your own job and your future.”
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Scott Taymun, a recently retired former federal executive who now leads training sessions for current senior managers, said in an interview that now is clearly a period of anxiety for those in the government’s senior ranks.
He said managers are only starting to find out now whether their units will face cuts. They also have to manage the frustration of unionized staff who may be receiving letters saying that their positions could be affected. At the same time, managers are also receiving letters informing them that their own positions could be eliminated.
Mr. Taymun, who had a leadership role in overseeing job cuts of a comparable size during the Deficit Reduction Action Plan under prime minister Stephen Harper, said he advises public servants to be patient.
“It’s not a short process,” he said. “You’re talking about a marathon right now, not a sprint.”
The letters going out to public servants signal only that their positions could be affected. There will be further updates if their positions are in fact being eliminated.
For instance, an e-mail last week from Lawrence Hanson, the deputy minister of Agriculture Canada, said 1,043 letters will be issued to both executive and non-executive employees. It also said the department, which had 5,690 employees last year, is aiming to reduce its work force by about 665 positions.
Workers in that department who receive letters will be invited to a meeting with branch executives to receive more information. There will then be follow-up e-mails.
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Unionized workers across the public service will have the option of a work-force adjustment process, which could involve leaving government with a lump-sum transitional support payment, but could also involve alternatives such as switching positions with another public servant who wants to leave government.
In addition, the budget promised a $1.5-billion early retirement incentive. That won’t be available until the budget bill receives Royal Assent, which could be weeks or even months away.
Ms. Laroche said the delay in opening the early retirement incentive creates challenges for deputy ministers.
Because they do not know how many staff will take the early retirement, it means managers have to focus more on the work-force adjustment process to meet job reduction targets, which she said is cumbersome.
Also, any benefits paid out through work-force adjustment are booked as expenses to the relevant department. In contrast, the $1.5-billion early retirement incentive will be funded by the public service pension fund, a move criticized by federal unions.
Allen Sutherland, president and chief executive officer of the Institute on Governance and a former senior public servant, said the early retirement incentive will be particularly relevant to the executive ranks, as managers tend to be older and closer to retirement age. Yet the details haven’t been announced.
“That is yet another complicating factor,” he said. “Folks don’t know what the early retirement incentive is.”