Question Period Note: Size of the Public Service

What is the government doing to reduce the size of the public service?

• Budget 2025 presents savings that are expected to lead to a reduction of approximately 16,000 full-time equivalents by March 2029.
• The Budget also announced that the executive cadre will be reduced by 1,000 positions over the next two years.
• These reductions will continue the trend towards a more sustainable public service size of roughly 330,000 by 2028-29.
• This is about 40,000 employees below the peak of nearly 368,000 in 2024.

The population of the federal public service was 257,034 in 2015 and grew to 367,772 in 2024 and then reduced to 357,965 in 2025.
The population of the federal public service compared with the Canadian population grew from 0.72% in 2015 to 0.90% in 2024 and reduced to 0.86% in 2025.

Year – Federal Public Service – Canadian Population - % of Canadian Population
2015 – 257,034 - 35,606,734 – 0.72%
2016 - 258,979 - 35,970,407 - 0.72%
2017 - 262,696 - 36,397,141 - 0.72%
2018 - 273,571 - 36,903,671 - 0.74%
2019 - 287,983 - 37,437,243 - 0.77%
2020 - 300,450 - 38,006,941 - 0.79%
2021 - 319,601 - 38,140,918 - 0.84%
2022 - 335,957 - 38,683,567 - 0.87%
2023 - 357,247 - 39,739,633 - 0.90%
2024 - 367,772 - 41,012,563 - 0.90%
2025 - 357,965 - 41,528,680 - 0.86%
*The numbers for each year is an extract from the beginning of the fiscal year (April 1st).
Managing hiring, talent and departures within organizations is the responsibility of deputy heads.
The size and composition of the public service adjust to meet government priorities, with deputy heads ensuring the workforce aligns with departmental mandates and program delivery requirements.
Since the start of the pandemic, the public service expanded significantly to support emergency response efforts and recovery programs and other government priorities, such as immigration. Despite this growth, the public service remains relatively stable as a proportion of Canada's population, currently representing 0.86% in 2025. This is still lower than the levels seen in the 1980s and early 1990s, when the proportion was higher. Annual growth slowed to 2.9% between 2023 and 2024 and then experienced a 2.7% annual reduction between 2024 and 2025, compared to an average annual growth of 5.5% from 2019 to 2023.
Budget 2023 announced the Refocusing Government Spending initiative to reallocate spending starting in 2023–2024 from across departments to priority areas. Details of specific budget reallocations by department are available online at Refocusing Government Spending: Refocusing Government Spending: Results for 2024–25, 2025–26, and 2026–27 - Canada.ca
Budget 2024 announced the second phase of refocusing government spending, requiring departments to cover part of their increased operating costs through existing resources starting on April 1, 2025. These savings are expected to be achieved primarily through natural attrition to the extent possible.
The platform of the Liberal Party of Canada included an explicit commitment to “capping” public service employment and ensuring that the size of the federal public service meets the needs of Canadians.
Prime Minister Carney’s announcement on May 2, 2025, outlined the Government’s priority to “… balance our operating budget over the next three years by cutting waste, capping the public service, ending duplicative programs and deploying technology to boost public sector productivity”.
On May 21, 2025, the Prime Minister's Mandate Letter to Cabinet included a commitment to spend less on government operations so that Canadians can invest more in the people and businesses that will build the strongest economy in the G7. The May 27, 2025, Speech from the Throne committed to reducing the government's operating budget from a growth rate of 9% annually to below 2%, and confirmed a public service employment cap would be put in place to achieve this goal.
Budget 2025 outlines a goal to reduce the federal public service by approximately 40,000 positions by March 2029, bringing the workforce down to about 330,000 employees. This includes a targeted reduction of 16,000 full-time equivalents, or 4.5% of the workforce, notably through attrition and voluntary departures, supported by a proposed Early Retirement Incentive (ERI) program.

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