Unions representing federal employees are speaking about what they want to see in the next government as Canadians prepare to head to the polls next month.
The federal government is the largest employer in national capital region and political decisions that concern the public service will have a major impact on employees’ day-to-day lives and the city’s economy.
CTV News Ottawa spoke with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) to see what they want and expect from the new government.
“I want this new government to be a leader, a true leader in protecting our sovereignty, but also ensuring that the people of Canada are protected,” said Sharon Desousa, president of PSAC, which represents nearly 240,000 workers across Canada.
“Regardless of if it’s a pandemic or a major crisis or this tariff war that we have going on, more than ever, people need good quality public services, and in a time of uncertainty, they need to be able to feel safe in their own country.
Unions say recent moves by the government are negatively impacting federal workers, including workforce reductions and a requirement that employees now be in the office at least three times a week.
“We’re going to expect them to deliver for working people,” said Nathan Prier, CAPE president, the third largest federal public sector union with over 25,000 members.
“I think a national crisis is the time where we need to really reset a lot of the economic assumptions that we might have had before. We’re going to be de-linking from the American economy, potentially, there might be mass unemployment, which means we might need mass relief programs. So, just as they did in Covid, the government’s going to have to deliver for working people across this country.”
Cuts to public service?
The Liberal government said in its last budget that the size of the public service would decline by roughly 5,000 full-time positions over the next four years.
In January, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced a plan to cut roughly 3,300 jobs over the next three years, including about 660 permanent employees.
The government reports there were 367,772 public servants in 2024, up from 257,034 in 2015.
Prier is hoping party leaders will commit to bolstering the public sector in light of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), that has slashed and dismantled U.S. federal agencies.
“We’d like very strong commitments to not repeat what’s going on in the U.S. right now with DOGE, with Elon Musk,” Prier said. “Obviously we’re not comparing apples to apples with Elon Musk, but we see hints of that ideology in what’s already happening in the government.”
Prier says cutting the public service and contracting work out is not the answer to any savings.
“We’re especially worried that, cutting public sector jobs just means handing those taxpayer dollars over to McKinsey, to Deloitte, to private contractors with close ties to the government,” he said.
Desousa added, “The federal public service has grown in proportion to the population of Canada, and they rely on public services more than ever. Are there cost savings? Yes, there are. But their cost savings, if we stop contracting this work out, there’s billions of dollars that are wasted.”
Remote work
Last September, the federal government introduced new rules for hybrid work, requiring public servants in the core public administration to be in the office a minimum of three days per week, while executives are expected to be on-site a minimum of four days a week.
Federal union launched a national campaign in January to promote hybrid work arrangements, arguing that it leads to “more productivity, less congestion on roads, reduced pollution and better work-life balance for families.
None of the federal party leaders have made any commitments to roll back to the new hybrid work rules.
“I think that this is a major opportunity for a new government, a new leadership to come in and look at being really leaders in the nature of work. Remote work is here to stay. It’s functional,” said Desousa.
“In fact, there’s, $6 billion in cost savings. If we got rid of those old archaic buildings, and they could also be repurposed for much needed affordable housing.”
Prier added, “So we think it’s a home run. We think it’s obvious, we think is low hanging fruit, that all federal public servants should be granted remote work rights so that we can start converting our offices into housing.”
The public sector unions say federal employees should be watching this election closely.
“Make sure that you look at each party’s platform. Ensure that they have your interests at heart and look at what the plan is. Making statements is not a plan. It’s not a vision for the future. And right now, what we do is protect Canada. So which party is going to be there for the people of Canada?" Prier said.
