He Promised to Protect Public Servants. His Government Just Cut 12,000 of Them.

Mark Carney campaigned on a promise that separated him from the Conservatives on the doorstep: he would not cut the public service. No mass layoffs. No slash-and-burn austerity. “Caps, not cuts” was the phrase his campaign repeated in the final weeks before the election.¹

During that same campaign, PSAC — Canada’s largest federal union — ran social media ads urging Canadians to “vote for public services,”⁵ a signal that even the union did not fully trust either major party. Carney’s platform was supposed to be the answer.

That promise lasted less than a year.

Departmental spending plans tabled in Parliament this month reveal that more than 12,000 full-time equivalent positions will be eliminated across the federal government over the next three years as part of the spending review.² The largest losses: 1,793 at Public Services and Procurement Canada, 942 at Health Canada, 900 at Statistics Canada. Employment and Social Development Canada — the department that processes EI, pensions, and child benefits — will have 15,629 fewer workers by 2029.³

This is only the first wave. Budget 2025 committed to eliminating 40,000 FTE positions by 2028–29.⁴ The 15% spending review targets 7.5% in year one, rising to 15% by 2028–29.

Shawn Celavie / Unsplash — Federal workers outside the Treasury Board offices in Ottawa, January 2026.

The contradiction runs deeper than the numbers. Even as headcount falls, total spending continues to rise.²

Departments have been told to replace workers with artificial intelligence. ESDC says it will be “leveraging AI to automate internal processes.”³ Carney’s cabinet includes a minister of artificial intelligence. It does not include a minister of labour.

Since January 7, 2026, over 8,000 PSAC members have received workforce adjustment notices — formal warnings their jobs are at risk. These are direct layoffs, concentrated at Health Canada, ESDC, Global Affairs, and Transport Canada.⁴

The government’s own analysis shows it could save $6 billion by expanding remote work and selling office space. Instead, leaked Treasury Board documents indicate Carney is moving all workers back to the office five days a week by January 2027 — spending millions to fill seats while eliminating 40,000 of them.

Twelve thousand positions confirmed. Forty thousand planned. Eight thousand notices already sent. Spending still rising. A campaign promise — written on page 37 of a platform released less than a year ago — that said none of this would happen.

Canadians were told “caps, not cuts.” What they got was the largest public service reduction in over a decade — with no published plan for what services will be lost, what programs will end, or who will answer the phone when Canadians call.