The following op-ed by PIPSC President Sean O’Reilly was published in National Newswatch on Nov 13, 2025.
The federal government’s Budget 2025, tabled last week, promises discipline, modernization, and efficiency. Those words might sound reassuring. But as always, the real question is: efficient for whom? And at what cost to Canada?
Budget 2025 is not an example of fiscal prudence. It is a high-risk experiment that will reach into every department, every program and every service Canadians rely on.
One of the key takeaways of this document is the plan to eliminate roughly over 40,000 public service jobs in the next few years. When governments make changes that are this drastic, Canadians always pay the price. Food inspections slow down. Emergencies take longer to contain. Digital systems grow weaker just as cyberattacks become more frequent.
These are not abstract risks. They are the daily functions that hold the country together.
Canadians want their government to spend wisely. Public service professionals want that too. But there is a big difference between improving how government works and hollowing out its ability to deliver. Efficiency cannot come at the expense of safety, stability or trust.
We have seen what happens when short-term savings take priority over smart investment. The downsizing of the 1990s closed laboratories and gutted regional services – hollowing out expertise for a generation. The “streamlining” of the 2010s gave us Phoenix, an IT project that still costs billions to repair. Every so-called era of efficiency ends the same way: broken programs, demoralized workers and higher bills later.
Today’s public service faces that same risk, this time under the banner of making the country stronger. The government says it wants innovation, faster service, better technology. So do we. But you cannot innovate by eliminating the people who deliver the work. You do not strengthen a country by defunding the systems that hold it together.
Behind the job numbers are people Canadians rarely see but rely on every day: the scientists who test our food and water, the meteorologists who track wildfires, the engineers who inspect bridges and the cybersecurity specialists who defend our networks from attack. Reducing their capacity does not simply shrink government; it weakens Canada’s resilience.
Public service professionals have delivered real efficiency before. When the pandemic hit, it was public servants who built the CERB benefit system in six weeks. There were no billion-dollar private contracts, no chaos, only competence. That is what genuine efficiency and innovation look like when expertise is trusted and properly resourced. The public service can and should be part of the solution, but only if it still has the people and tools to deliver.
True efficiency means smarter investment, not deeper cuts. It means empowering professionals to modernize from within, not hollowing out expertise and leaving the country vulnerable. It means investing in the workers delivering crucial public services, not relying on outsourcing to the tune of $26 billion dollars.
Canadians want to know that when a crisis hits — a flood, a wildfire, a cyber-attack — someone is on the job. They want a government that protects what keeps us safe and stable, not one that gambles with the services we all depend on.
Budget 2025 gambles with that security. It treats the public service as a cost to be managed instead of the infrastructure that keeps our economy, environment and communities functioning. Cuts this deep do not make the government leaner. They make Canada weaker.
Behind every so-called efficiency is a service Canadians will lose. Behind every saving is someone’s safety, livelihood or access to the essentials of daily life. You cannot cut your way to competence.
If we want a government that delivers for Canadians, we must protect the people and the systems that make that possible. Because when those are gone, the damage will not just be measured in jobs — it will be measured in the safety and stability of the country itself.
Sean O'Reilly, President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC)