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The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is reducing its workforce by 348 employees and has sent notices of potential layoffs to 708 people, an agency spokesperson says.
The union representing the agency’s employees says workers in Windsor are among those who have received the notices, but it’s unclear how many will be let go.
The layoffs will exclusively affect workers in national headquarters branches and not on the front lines, the CBSA said.
But the president of the Customs and Immigration Union, a branch of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), said those are the people behind the scenes who keep the operation running.
“They work commercial. They work trade. They work passenger operations,” Mark Weber said.
“We have people in science and technology, intel. … There’s a lot of work that goes into it, and a lot of people who do those kinds of jobs that the public doesn’t necessarily see.”
Federal government seeking to reduce workforce
The job cuts impact both executives and non-executives, the CBSA said, and are a response to a reduction of two per cent, or about $52 million, in the agency’s budget.
It comes as the federal government seeks to reduce its workforce by 16,000 full-time equivalent positions over the next three years.
“This reduction cannot be achieved without impacts,” the agency spokesperson said.
The CBSA provided the following breakdown of the number of workers affected in each of its branches:
Commercial and Trade Branch: 92 employees affected; 29 positions to be cut.Travellers Branch: 136 employees affected; 52 positions to be cut.Intelligence and Enforcement Branch: 97 employees affected; 63 positions to be cut.Strategic Policy Branch: 103 employees affected; 78 positions to be cut.Human Resources Branch: 231 employees affected; 84 positions to be cut.Information, Science and Technology Branch: 32 employees affected; 26 positions to be cut.Finance and Corporate Management Branch: 17 employees affected; 16 positions to be cut.
The agency said it is aiming to reduce some of the positions by uniting workers doing similar tasks under fewer executives and by eliminating duplication of corporate functions.
It is also deploying new tools to support managers in tracking budgets, management action plans and procurement activities.
Affected employees have the option to retire or resign voluntarily or to swap positions with another employee who would like to leave, Weber said.
The government is offering incentives for early retirement, though the details are still unclear, he added.
Job cuts will happen if there aren’t enough voluntary resignations.
The workforce reductions do not affect the hiring of 1,000 new frontline officers announced in October or the federal government’s $1.3 billion border plan announced in December 2024, the CBSA said.
Mark Weber is the president of the Customs and Immigration Union. (CBC )
“Whether it is countering the new ways in which organized crime groups [seek] to smuggle contraband into and out of the country or supporting the Canadian economy through revenue collection and trade measures, we will be expanding many of our frontline and operational teams,” the agency said.
“At the same time, we recognize the need to operate more efficiently in our policy, program, and internal services functions.”
Weber said the border services agency is facing relatively fewer job cuts than some other government agencies and departments.
But he said that doesn’t diminish the toll they take on workers.
“It’s not numbers. It’s people,” he said.
“It’s people who’ve given a lot of years and a lot of time and a lot of sweat and toil, and they’ve given everything. For the agency to now just kind of say, ‘Sorry, we don’t need you’ – I don’t think it’s where the cuts need to be happening.”
Weber said the government could save jobs and money by backing down on its return-to-office mandate and expanding telework.
It could also, he said, go after executive bonuses.