Karl Salgo, a retired public service executive and former executive director of public governance at the Ottawa-based Institute on Governance, laid out the case in a new opinion piece. The government set a goal of cutting the public service by 10 per cent, with that target set to be reached by 2028-29.
The numbers so far
By the end of the second quarter of 2026, the public service had already shrunk by 6.2 per cent, down to 342,000 employees. But Salgo points out that of the 22,500 cuts made to date, two-thirds were term, casual or student employees, not the permanent workforce reductions the 10 per cent target implies.
The scale of notices sent out has been far larger than the cuts themselves. By December 2025, almost 70,000 public servants had received notices that they were eligible for early retirement. Separately, about 26,000 employees have received workforce adjustment notices, the formal process used when a position is declared surplus.
Growth in some corners, cuts in others
What undercuts the idea of a coordinated strategy, according to Salgo, is that some departments have kept growing while others shrink. The Canadian Security Establishment added nearly 350 positions, and National Defence added more than 2,700, even as other parts of the public service were cutting staff to meet the overall target.
For a city where the federal government is the dominant employer, that unevenness matters.
How we got here
Salgo's piece also puts the current reduction in context. The public service had expanded by 40 per cent from the late 2010s to its peak in 2024, meaning even a full 10 per cent cut would still leave the workforce well above where it stood a decade ago.
What it means for Ottawa
For Ottawa residents, the practical effect is a public service that looks smaller in official terms but has grown less consistently across departments than the government's target suggests. Term, casual and student positions, the easiest to cut, have absorbed most of the reduction so far, while notices for early retirement and workforce adjustment point to a much larger wave still working its way through the system.
Whether the remaining cuts needed to hit the 10 per cent goal by 2028-29 will be more strategic, targeting specific departments and functions rather than the most easily eliminated positions, remains to be seen. For now, Salgo's analysis suggests Ottawa's federal workforce reduction has been more about hitting a number than reshaping how government works.
Sources: Ottawa Citizen (via Yahoo News Canada)
