Ottawa, December 8, 2025 –  Reacting to news today shared by Prime Minister Carney that a new return to office mandate is coming in the next few weeks, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) is calling on the federal government to ground any Return to Office (RTO) decisions in evidence, service outcomes, and operational reality.

“Canadians want results, not roll calls,” said PIPSC President Sean O’Reilly. “When the government makes policies about optics instead of outcomes, it risks slowing service delivery, draining talent, and making it harder to recruit the next generation of professionals.”

“We’ve been clear for years: RTO must be about 'presence with purpose,’” continued O’Reilly. “Where in-person work improves innovation, training, or service delivery, that’s great. But forcing people back just to be seen and to sit in on video calls from another location is not leadership. It’s theatre.”

As unions return to the bargaining table, the timing of the Prime Minister’s comments raises questions that underscore the need for evidence, transparency and collaboration.

“The government has consistently told unions that RTO was not being considered, and its most recent budget made no reference,” said O’Reilly. “We can all agree that no one wants a repeat of past RTO Directives, which were announced without consultation and caused widespread disruption, confusion, and unnecessary strain on labour-management relations.”

PIPSC wrote to the government as recently as last week to reiterate the union’s clear expectations.

“RTO is not a workforce strategy. You can’t modernize government with a 20th-century workplace model.”

PIPSC represents over 85,000 public sector professionals across the country, with the majority employed by the federal government.

-30-

For more information or a copy of the letter PIPSC sent to TBS please contact : Brittany Smith (416) 841-4325, smithb@pipsc.ca.

By Sean O’Reilly, President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) 

“The federal government’s decision to cut critical research programs and scientific positions at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) poses serious and avoidable risks to safety and security across the country.

Canada’s geography, natural resources, and climate vulnerabilities demand world-class science. Yet almost entire teams responsible for keeping Canadians safe are being eliminated – the vast majority not through attrition, not voluntarily, but via layoffs.

These are highly dedicated public service professionals whose forecasting and analysis play a critical role in ensuring Canadians are not put in harm’s way. Eliminating them makes Canadians less safe.”

Here’s just a snapshot of what’s at stake:

• These cuts decimate capacity at the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation and Remote Sensing. This threatens our capacity to track wildfires, floods, landslides, and other geohazards, and to monitor the size and threats to freshwater resources. These scientists provide the data that emergency responders and governments depend on to protect communities from disaster and to support responsible resource development.
   
• The cuts also undermine our Arctic sovereignty. Accurate geoscience, mapping, and monitoring of Canada’s vast northern landmass are essential for asserting territorial rights, protecting northern infrastructure, and ensuring responsible resource activity. Reducing this capacity leaves Canada less able to defend its interests as other nations increase theirs.
   
• Canada has already lost almost its entire capacity to detect and fight deadly forest diseases. Thirty years ago, we had 16 forest pathologists. If these cuts proceed, we’ll have just four left, and only one left to monitor the entire forestry system east of the Rockies. We’ve already seen the cost of looking away: Dutch elm disease wiped out millions of elm trees across North America. The Emerald Ash Borer is wiping out ash trees now. Without pathologists monitoring forests, dangerous pests and diseases will spread unchecked.

“We want to be clear. These cuts are not abstract. They do not just trim budgets on a spreadsheet; they increase risk. They are positions and programs that directly support disaster prevention, scientific monitoring, resource development, environmental protection, and arctic sovereignty.

At a time when Canada is facing increased threats, significant economic challenges, and big promises over resource projects, these programs are critical, not optional.

We urge the federal government to reconsider these cuts immediately. Canada’s safety, security, and scientific leadership depend on it.”

Some employer email security settings are blocking union emails from reaching members. 

If you are using an employer email address to receive PIPSC communications, we recommend updating it to a personal email address.

Update my email address with PIPSC

It is important to use a personal email address to receive communications from your union for the following reasons:

Privacy: The employer can access your emails through your employer's email address. Using a personal email address keeps your information private. 

Communication: If you lose access to your employer email address, we can still reach you at your personal email address.

Time-sensitive information: Now more than ever, there are important issues members need to know about, such as Work Force Adjustment (WFA), Return to Office (RTO), and bargaining a new collective agreement. Using a personal email address for PIPSC communications ensures you continue to receive these updates.

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)

As anxiety rises among members about Work Force Adjustment (WFA) and more departments announce WFAs, we would like to draw your attention to the Department of National Defence (DND) and Public Service Commission (PSC) Mobility Initiative.

DND will be hiring thousands of new employees in the coming years to meet government commitments. In cooperation with the PSC, DND has launched a Mobility Initiative to facilitate recruitment from within the federal public service.

DND has identified 8 functional recruitment streams, each associated with specific occupational groups. 

The table below provides links to career pathways corresponding to these groups. You must log in through your GCJobs Account to click on the links below. The links go to an internal government page for the relevant occupational groups, many of which include PIPSC classifications in the RE, IT, CP, NR, SH and SP groups.

DND and the Treasury Board Secretariat have informed us that these positions will be filled through voluntary deployments at level. This is not an alternation platform and is unrelated to alternation and WFA. If individuals are on PSC priority lists, they will receive these deployments first, but we encourage members to apply. 

Budget 2025 was tabled this week, and it confirms much of what we warned about in our “Five Red Flags” analysis. 

Simply put: behind the language of “discipline” and “modernization” lurks the most significant downsizing of Canada’s public service since the 1990s – with 40, 000 positions being eliminated by 2028.

While it is not yet clear what exactly will get cut, it is clear that cuts will result in losses of key public goods, particularly in environmental monitoring, data collection, and applied research.

This is not what we wanted, and not what Canadians wanted. 

Where we wanted to see efficiency, we are seeing erosion of services. Where we wanted to see strategic investment, we are seeing slashing of capacity. 

The public service is being sacrificed as a quick fix, and it will cost Canadians.

Canadians want their government to spend wisely, and public service professionals agree. But when you eliminate the people who inspect food, deliver benefits, protect data, and track wildfires, you’re not cutting waste. You’re increasing risk.

Here’s how the budget’s promises are playing out in practice, and what it means for Public Service Commission members and Canadians.

“Efficiency” language hides the cost of real cuts

What’s branded as “modernization” is, in reality, cuts, reduced capacity and service loss. Phrases like “reduced overlap,” “streamlining,” and “program consolidation” sound prudent, but are euphemisms for program cuts that risk creating gaps where no one is accountable.

Cuts like the ones proposed in Budget 2025 disrupt workflows, break mentorship chains, and scatter institutional memory – and lead to slower services and more inefficiency.

Without a plan to transfer expertise or train replacements, institutional knowledge simply disappears. Attrition is often framed as painless, but with one in ten jobs being eliminated, we know many of us are going to feel the impacts.

The language of efficiency masks the disappearance of capacity: fewer food safety inspections, slower emergency responses, weaker disease monitoring. Canadians will pay the price.

While the budget didn’t outline where every job, service or program will be cut, it did outline where we can expect some: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will close its Agricultural Climate Solutions Living Labs. The Canadian Space Agency faces $41 million in unexplained cuts. Public Services and Procurement Canada will see reduced funding for Laboratories Canada pilot projects. And while the Canada Border Services Agency plans to hire 1,000 new officers, it will simultaneously cut training budgets — undermining the effectiveness of those very hires.

These are not efficiency measures. They are dismantling the infrastructure of public service piece by piece, and creating conditions for chaos not a fast, effective federal public service.

Artificial Intelligence as a “quick fix” with long-term consequences

Artificial Intelligence plays a prominent but uneven role in Budget 2025. While the government touts cuts to “management and consulting services,” most AI and digital work still falls under professional-services contracts that depend heavily on private IT vendors.

While we welcome the “Made in Canada” tech solutions in this budget, it does not necessarily mean “made by Canadian public servants.”  We need to ensure public ownership in any new AI infrastructure to safeguard Canadian data and ensure public control and accountability.

The budget also provides little clarity on how these new initiatives will affect public-sector jobs or internal capacity. Labour must be part of AI governance to ensure protection, transparency and accountability. Unions need to be consulted at every step of the way, which is why we continue to call for a seat on the government’s AI advisory committee that currently only includes science and business voices. 

Finally, making investments in AI while cutting tens of thousands of public sector jobs is more than just a contradiction, it sets the country up to fail. We cannot build sovereign technology if we dismantle the workforce meant to run it. Algorithms and AI bots cannot replace professional judgment of human experts. 

We know that rushed automation leads to errors, delays, and costly failures. We are still living with the impacts of the CRA’s audit automation problems and the Phoenix pay system debacle.

Unless AI initiatives are paired with investment in in-house training and hiring, they will expand outsourcing rather than reduce it.

AI should be a tool to strengthen the public service, not a shortcut that weakens it.

An increase in costly outsourcing

Budget 2025 claims it will “cut back” on private consultants, but the government’s own numbers tell a different story. Outsourcing has doubled since pre-pandemic levels, and by the government’s own estimates, spending on professional services is projected to hit $26.1 billion this year – a 37% increase from last year and a record high.

We’ve heard this pledge before: past governments vowed to curb contracting costs and never came close. Even if this government’s promised 20% reduction bucks the trend and materializes, outsourcing spending would still be approximately double what it was 10 years ago. 

This isn’t fiscal discipline. It is dependence on private firms that charge up to 26% more than equivalent public service staff. Every taxpayer dollar spent on private consultants is a dollar not spent on building internal public expertise.

The result is a hollowed-out public service forced to rent back the very skills it once had in-house. That’s not efficient. That's a waste.

It doesn’t need to be this way. When the government needed to act fast during the pandemic, public servants built CERB in just six weeks. This was inarguably faster and cheaper than any private firm could have done. That’s what real efficiency looks like. When public service professionals are trusted to lead, we deliver. 

If this government truly wants to make cuts for cost savings, it should start by going after the $26 billion outsourcing bill, not the wildfire analyst, public health scientist, or engineer who keep Canadians safe.

Neglecting science and evidence

Starving public science undermines both safety and sovereignty. Budget 2025 is eerily silent on direct funding for federal science and research laboratories. There are no line items showing investment in departmental research facilities, technical programs, or the scientific workforce — even though we have been clear for years that this funding is desperately needed. There is also no mention of scientific integrity or evidence-based policy — a troubling retreat from earlier commitments.

Instead Budget 2025 threatens to cut more from Canada’s federal science and research capacity. While the specifics of the cuts are yet to be delivered, Budget 2025 included some departmental programs that will be affected: Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, among others. Meanwhile, private-sector R&D continues to receive support while public science is left to attrition.

Public science takes decades to build and seconds to cut – and consequences will be felt far beyond laboratories. They will show up in slower wildfire response, fewer food inspections, and weaker disease monitoring. 

PIPSC’s latest report, A Science Roadmap for Canada’s Future, paints a stark picture: only 6.5 percent of scientists say their department has adequate research funding; confidence in evidence-based policymaking has dropped to 44 percent; and 36 percent of federal labs are in poor or critical condition. Reports of political interference in research are rising.

Public science is already starving for resources and needs investment to stay resilient. More cuts could deliver a devastating blow — not just to scientists, but to every Canadian who relies on their work.

Forgetting the bigger picture

You can’t build a strong Canada by weakening what holds it together. What’s being cut in this budget isn’t red tape; it’s the connective tissue that keeps programs coordinated and accountable. PIPSC members are the quiet force behind Canada’s strength: scientists, engineers, auditors, computer specialists, and policy experts who make government work.

Promises of “doing things faster, simpler, better” cannot be achieved with reduced capacity, capped training, and shrinking professional development. If we truly want a government that works faster, simpler, and better, we have to start by keeping — and supporting — the people who know how it works.

Public servants already know where inefficiencies lie: poor planning, outdated systems, and costly outsourcing. They are ready to fix them. But instead of being empowered to modernize, they are being sidelined by short-term savings targets.

Without a plan, cuts will create a revolving door of quick fixes and lost knowledge. Once that expertise is gone, rebuilding it will take years. Canadians will feel the effects through slower services, weaker oversight, and less preparedness when crises hit.

The path forward 

Canadians want their government to spend wisely, and public servants share that goal. But efficiency without capacity is fragility.

The smarter path forward is clear:

• Strengthen the public service without deep cuts.
• Rein in wasteful outsourcing and rebuild internal expertise.
• Adopt AI responsibly and with transparency.
• Reinvest in evidence-based decision-making and scientific integrity.
• Focus on long-term problem-solving, not short-term optics.

We are calling on Members of Parliament to look closely at what’s being cut and who will pay the price. MPs must not simply rubber-stamp this budget. They must ask hard questions about how these decisions will affect their communities and Canada’s ability to respond to future crises.

So-called “efficiency” cannot come at the expense of the safety, stability, and public services that hold this country together. 

Ottawa, November 4, 2025  – The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) warns that today’s federal budget cuts, which aim to cut upwards of 40,000 public sector jobs, go far beyond “efficiency” and will hit critical services Canadians count on every day. 

Canadians want their government to spend wisely, and public service professionals agree. But when you eliminate the people who inspect food, deliver benefits, protect data, and track wildfires, you’re not cutting waste – you’re increasing risk.

“Canadians expect efficiency, not erosion,” said Sean O’Reilly, President of PIPSC. “Behind every cut is a service delay, a slower emergency response, or a system that’s one failure away from crisis. These cuts don’t make us leaner –  they make us more fragile.”

Public service professionals are the experts who protect our data, manage emergencies, track disease outbreaks, and maintain the systems Canadians rarely see but rely on every day. Reducing their capacity doesn’t just shrink government – it erodes Canada’s resilience.

“We share the goal of a more effective, innovative public service. But you can’t do more with less. True efficiency means smarter investment, not defunding services,” continued O’Reilly.

At the same time, the government continues to pour record amounts into outsourcing work to private consultants: $26 billion projected for this year alone, the highest on record according to its own main estimates. While the budget makes a vague commitment to a modest reduction in outsourcing, PIPSC notes that similar promises have come and gone without real results. It’s an approach that still doesn’t add up.

“It’s not efficient to replace experienced public servants with expensive consultants who cost 25% more than a public service professional,” said O’Reilly. “If the goal is savings, start with the billions going to private firms – not the food safety inspector or public health scientist.”

Public service professionals understand where the real inefficiencies lie – poor planning, outdated systems, a lack of trust and consultation with public service experts, and an overreliance on wasteful outsourcing.

“Empower public servants to modernize from within,” O’Reilly concluded. “Let the professionals lead. That’s how you get real efficiency — without slashing services Canadians rely on.”

PIPSC represents over 85,000 public-sector professionals across the country, most of them employed by the federal government. Follow us on Facebook, on X (formerly known as Twitter) and on Instagram.

- 30 -

For more information: Johanne Fillion, 613-883-4900 (mobile)

In a deeply disappointing move - and to avoid good faith bargaining - the Premier of Alberta has used the notwithstanding clause to force Alberta's 51,000 teachers back to work. This is a dangerous precedent that will impact workers across the country. 

Collective bargaining rights are under attack. 

The notwithstanding clause is part of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and in Alberta the Alberta Bill of Rights and Alberta Human Rights Act. This clause is intended for emergency situations. The notwithstanding clause allows governments to circumvent the legal framework of the Charter's rights, primarily fundamental freedoms, legal rights and equality rights.

In this case, the notwithstanding clause was utilized to strip the Alberta Teachers Association of their bargaining rights.

Premier Smith has weaponized legislation that is intended to protect citizens. Legislating teachers back to work, stripping them of their bargaining rights is a direct attack on students, families and the teachers who keep the education system functioning. 

This legislation means Alberta Teachers have zero bargaining power for a period of at least five years and are subject to a contract they strongly rejected.This action has a chilling effect on labour rights and is widely seen as a significant overreach of power. 

While the strike is over - classrooms in Alberta remain overcrowded, under supported and without the critical funds needed. Teachers’ wages have lagged behind inflation rates for far too long and they are asked to do more with less on a daily basis. Worse still - teachers have been silenced and democracy has been challenged. 

ATA President Jason Schilling noted that  “Teachers will comply with the law, but make no mistake—compliance is not consent. The Association will fight this abuse of power with every tool the law provides and every ounce of conviction we possess.”

PIPSC proudly stands in solidarity with the Alberta Teachers’ Associate, the Alberta Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress. As a labour movement we must stand up for our right to bargain, strike and organize. 

We encourage you to show your solidarity too. Visit the ATA’s website and take action today. 

Support Alberta’s Teachers

All Canadians must push back against this devastating overstep. 

We recognize that future job actions could further impact parents, including our members, across the province. PIPSC will ensure members are aware of their rights and how to show support. Employers are required to consider accommodation requests on a case by case basis. 

If you require support, please reach out to your local stewards.