The 2025 federal budget promised to reduce the size of the public service.

Letters have been sent to around 68,000 public servants this week to inform them about early-retirement incentives as part of Ottawa’s push to shrink the size of the federal government.

The Nov. 4 budget announced a plan to reduce the size of the public service by about 30,000 people over five years, in addition to a recent cut of about 10,000 jobs.

The size of the core public service reached a peak of 367,772 employees in 2024 before falling to 357,965 this year.

The budget announced that $1.5-billion would be made available to fund early-retirement incentives as a way of meeting the staff-reduction targets.

Unions warn federal budget proposal could lead to pension cuts for government workers

Mohammad Kam

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