OTTAWA — The Carney government just promised major investments in its newest budget while cutting the public service needed to deliver them. The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) is demanding that the government reverse the public service cuts and redirect the $40 billion in potential savings eaten up by a wasteful return-to-office mandate to the services and infrastructure Canadians need.
Budget 2026 promises $142 billion in programs, services and projects intended to make life more affordable for Canadians, attract investment and bolster our national sovereignty. But it also continues to cut the public service while refusing to replace staff who left through the Early Retirement Incentive program – even when those cuts exceeded the planned reductions. These cuts undermine this government’s ability to deliver on its ambitious investment commitments.
“Investment announcements mean little if the federal workers who make them a reality are being cut. CAPE members assess projects, develop public policy, and deliver services in both official languages. They know what that work requires. Cutting staff and programs means losing expertise, delaying work, and asking fewer people to do more. If the government continues its multi-year ideological cuts, new investment headlines will not change that reality. Federal public sector workers are essential to delivering on promises,” said Nathan Prier, CAPE President.
Carney’s doublespeak is nothing new. He promises stronger health care while planning more than $3 billion in Health Canada cuts, putting rare disease drug funding, the opioid response and disease prevention at risk. He claims to defend French while the Translation Bureau plans to cut a quarter of its language professionals over five years. He pledges reconciliation while cutting treaty implementation and Indigenous consultation teams, and cuts environmental protection while funding pipelines, oil, gas and mining. He invokes fiscal restraint while wasting billions on return-to-office policies that benefit commercial landlords and banks.
New investment promises will not undo the damage public service cuts have already done unless the government properly staffs them.
Currently, federal public sector workers are already being asked to do more, faster, with fewer resources. Job cuts and chaotic AI rollouts are hollowing out the public service, eroding institutional knowledge and increasing workloads and stress for those who remain. Critical work is slowing, and programs that support environmental protection, health care, and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples are losing the capacity to deliver.
"We know exactly where the Carney government can save money: stop forcing public servants into costly office towers and invest that $40 billion dollars of potential savings in services Canadians need. Blanket return-to-office requirements only benefit the landlords and banks with money tied up in those properties," said Prier.
CAPE will scrutinize departmental plans to see whether promised funding translates into the staffing and programs needed to deliver, or whether cuts continue behind the investment headlines. Public service workers and their allies will keep up the pressure: stop the cuts, end the irresponsible return-to-office mandate, and invest in the people who deliver for Canadians.
