Ottawa is a city of bureaucrats. It is home to the main ministries and departments. And everything that happens in these ministries, one way or another, concerns us, the residents of the capital

For the first time since 2015, the federal government apparatus of Canada began to shrink. According to the Treasury Board, from 2024 to 2025, 9,807 jobs were eliminated in the system.

The Tax Administration (CRA) lost the most - minus 6,656 employees, mostly temporary, whose contracts were not renewed. In December 2024 alone, the CRA did not renew the contracts of 600 temporary workers, and is now preparing to fire another 280 permanent ones.

The Ministry of Immigration cut 1,944 positions, as part of an overall plan to reduce the workforce by 3,300 people over three years. The Ministry of Health (-559) and the Public Health Agency (-879) also suffered.

At the same time, the number of employees in the Ministry of Defence (+381) and the RCMP (+911) increased.

Control over the optimization has been entrusted to a government committee headed by Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

The cuts follow the government's promise to reduce the number of civil servants by 5,000 over four years. Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to "limit" rather than reduce the number of civil servants. But we are seeing something different. And for Canadian taxpayers, this is good news. But for bureaucrats, it is bad news.