OTTAWA – While Prime Minister Mark Carney talks about building a strong economy, his actions show clear choices to weaken the public service, prop up an economic reality that’s inaccessible for most Canadians, and make it easier for profit-first private interests to move in when public systems are under strain.
“If the government is serious about saving money, it should start with wasteful return-to-office renovation spending, office real estate, consultants, and risky AI experiments — not by cutting health care, reconciliation, and the public programs and services Canadians rely on,” said CAPE President Nathan Prier.
CAPE also noted that while there's creative accounting, now the Carney government seems to welcome creative budgeting, and Canada's healthcare system, reconciliation, and proud services are on the chopping block while outside contractors get off easy. The government boasted of its 20 per cent reduction in consultant expenses, but that is only coming out of the $5 billion management consultant tranche and is just a fraction of the $23.1 billion consultant piece of the pie.
Implementing remote work could save the government $40 billion over ten years while increasing productivity, as evidenced by the government’s own data. Instead, the push to force public servants into office buildings four days a week will make workers less productive and cost billions of dollars of tax dollars – a number that is increasing as the government is looking to buy more buildings to accommodate the increased in-office mandate. This is despite previous promises to cut the portfolio by half, allowing these buildings to be freed up for much-needed social housing or other community needs.
“You do not strengthen the country by making Canadians wait longer for care, support, and public services,” said Prier. “Weakening public service weakens people’s quality of life and opens the door to profit-first privatization. Health care is the clearest example: when governments underinvest in prevention and public capacity, emergency rooms get swamped, waiting times rise, and privatization pushes become more attractive.”
The government has already cut health care spending, which will have long-term impacts. The Public Health Agency of Canada has seen key programs for chronic disease prevention and promotion scaled way back, which will strain every level of our health care system.
Some communities will feel additional impacts from the government’s spending plans. Major cuts to the Translation Bureau, which will lose 25 per cent of its workforce by 2030, and an overreliance on unreliable AI, means that francophone people across Canada are losing access to high-quality services and risk receiving incorrect information from their government. And Crown-Indigenous Relations will see a 62 per cent reduction over two years, which will significantly hamper its ability to deliver on reconciliation commitments.
In regard to the Canada Strong Fund, it's unclear where exactly those funds are coming from, but CAPE believes that you can't build sovereignty by cutting the very public services, like health care, and the public servants who do the work that makes Canada strong at the same time as establishing this fund.
