Around 800 jobs to be cut Service Canada offices nationally

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Around 800 passport office jobs are expected to be cut across the country at the end of June due to a forecast of reduced applications from Service Canada.
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In an email to this newspaper, a spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) said the decision was 'necessary and not taken lightly.'
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The cuts will impact Service Canada offices nationally, the spokesperson added. They did not provide details about how many jobs from each service location will be cut, but did say all impacted employees have been notified.
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'As a federal department, ESDC has an obligation to ensure sound fiscal management throughout the organization based on forecasted workload volumes. Revenues must be balanced with costs, including costs for employee salaries,' the email read.
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The job cuts come after the Canadian Revenue Agency announced it will cut 280 jobs, most of them in the National Capital Region.
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The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represents nearly 240,000 public service workers across the country, said the job cuts will threaten services that people rely on every day.
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It will mean longer wait times at passport offices as well as weakened services for taxpayers and businesses, the union said.
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'Throughout the election, the Liberals promised 'caps, not cuts,' but each week, hundreds of federal workers are receiving notice that their jobs are being eliminated,' said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC national president, in a statement posted online.
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Toronto Sun

a day ago

• Toronto Sun

GOLDSTEIN: Prepare for more billion-dollar boondoggles

Reports by financial watchdogs of government spending suggest there are major concerns about how public infrastructure projects will be approved Get the latest from Lorrie Goldstein straight to your inbox Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks as he attends a tour of the Fort York Armoury in Toronto on June 9, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. Photo by Cole Burston / Getty Images What happens when Prime Minister Mark Carney's promise of massive new federal spending on public infrastructure and speedy approval of 'nation building projects' runs into the fact the federal public service routinely ignores the rules for spending public money and approving such projects? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The answer, potentially, is the waste of mega-billions of public dollars on projects that are so poorly administered, some may never be completed. The issue isn't the policies themselves. Carney's Liberals and the official opposition Conservatives agree with streamlining the process for green-lighting projects such as pipelines, mines and other forms of energy infrastructure, if they are endorsed by the province and Indigenous groups where they occur. That was evidenced by their rapid approval of Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act on Friday, before Parliament adjourned for the summer. Liberals and Conservatives passed the legislation intended to boost the Canadian economy given the damage caused by President Donald Trump's tariff war and the fact the U.S. is no longer a reliable trading partner or ally of Canada. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The legislation is now headed to the Senate, scheduled to sit until June 27, for final approval before Canada Day on July 1. Read More But recent reports by Parliament's two financial watchdogs of government spending – Auditor General Karen Hogan and Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux – suggest there are major concerns about how these projects will be approved. Hogan reviewed the Liberal government's approval of the notorious ArriveCan app that was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up costing about $60 million, as well as 106 other professional services contracts awarded by 31 federal departments and agencies and one Crown corporation to IT staffing firm GCStrategies Inc. from 2015 to 2024. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. They totalled up to $92.7 million – of which, $64.5 million was paid out. Hogan found a widespread failure within the federal public service to follow the rules in awarding these contacts intended to ensure taxpayers get good value for money. She said the same thing happened when she examined 97 contracts awarded by 20 federal departments agencies and Crown corporations valued at $209 million, with $200 million paid out, to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, from 2011 to 2023. 'I said it back then and I'll repeat it now – I have no reason to believe this is unique to two vendors and that's why I believe the government needs to take a step back and look at why this is happening,' Hogan warned. Hogan took the unusual step of not making any recommendations on her findings, saying the problem isn't a lack of rules but the federal bureaucracy ignoring them. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In a separate report, Hogan estimated the cost of replacing Canada's aging fleet of CF-18 fighter jets with 88 new F-35s, increased by almost 50% within two years – from $19 billion in 2022 to $27.7 billion in 2024. In addition, another $5.5 billion will be needed for infrastructure needed to make the new jet fighters fully operational, because the government relied on outdated data and failed to develop contingency plans for managing financial risks associated with the project. She also noted a long-standing shortage of trained fighter pilots. In a report released Thursday, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux said because Carney has delayed the federal budget until fall, he can't determine whether his claim he will balance the federal operating budget by 2028-29 is credible. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Nor can he determine whether Carney will achieve his commitment to increase federal spending on defence to the NATO target of 2% of GDP this fiscal year, and whether the government's overall financial plan is fiscally sustainable. In his election platform Carney's outlined $130 billion in new spending over four years with total deficit spending of $224.8 billion. That's 71% higher than the $131.4 billion in deficit spending the Trudeau government predicted during the same period last December. The problem, Giroux said, is that Carney is claiming he can balance the operating budget, the cost of running the government, within three years, while financing new capital spending on infrastructure with more public debt. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'There is no commonly accepted definition of what is defined as 'operating' or 'non-operating capital' spending,' Giroux wrote, meaning he 'is unable to assess whether the government's recent policy initiatives presented in Parliament … are consistent with achieving its new fiscal objective … This means the government could achieve its fiscal objective and yet be fiscally unsustainable.' Unless the federal government addresses the concerns of the auditor general and parliamentary budget officer, expect for more billion-dollar boondoggles of the type we've seen so often in the past. lgoldstein@ Columnists Toronto & GTA Columnists Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls

Edmonton Journal

a day ago

• Edmonton Journal

Bell: Carney gets Bill C-5 win but will Danielle Smith get schooled by the PM?

Article content Question for premier But a big question remains. Did Alberta Premier Danielle Smith get what she wanted? Did Alberta get what it wanted? Unlike Carney, both Smith and Alberta will have to wait for the big win, if there is one. Carney is asked the big question after his big win. Will the first projects to be fast-tracked be in the energy field? Will those projects be considered initially? The reporter mentions Premier Smith and pipelines. Smith wants a bitumen pipeline to the B.C. port of Prince Rupert. Smith backed Carney on Bill C-5. 'Well, that's a very good question,' says Carney. You know when someone says it's a very good question you might not get a very good answer. 'It depends. To be perfectly honest that's the only answer,' continues the prime minister. Carney says there are transmission line projects and there are a number of possible pipeline projects, gas pipelines or oil pipelines. Article content Article content But …. 'At the same time there are major projects that are very attractive. For example, a project in Quebec that's very attractive,' he says, in French. Sinking feeling Carney mentions a potential energy corridor at Grays Point in Nunavut. There is a potential project in Manitoba and Saskatchewan as far as Churchill. 'Those are projects that could lead to the development of other projects involving critical minerals.' If you're experiencing a sinking feeling it's not the pizza you ate last night. Carney says there are other projects not on the list put forward by the provinces 'in terms of AI infrastructure.' The prime minister talks about what a project has to have in order to be picked for the express lane of approval. 'It has to be in the national interest,' says Carney. 'There has to be some probability they can actually move forward. Article content 'We have to have the agreement of the Indigenous peoples.' Here is a line for you. 'They also have to be consistent with our climate goals in Canada.' When will the first so-called nation-building projects be picked? 'We'll see,' says Carney. Premier Smith has already said she wants Carney and the Liberals to be dealing with her demand to scrap nine anti-oil and gas and anti-development Liberal laws by the fall. You know, getting rid of the oil and gas emissions cap, the tanker ban, rewriting or scrapping the No More Pipelines law, tossing the net-zero power regulations, to name the ones that always come up. A few days ago, Smith backed Carney in the hopes of getting the pipeline built as a first step. Then with her pipeline on the prime minister's VIP list, the Very Important Project list, Carney could then take the hatchet to the bad for Alberta laws cooked up in the 10 years of Trudeau. Article content But, just saying, what happens if Carney doesn't come through with Smith's bitumen pipeline? What happens if Carney doesn't deal with most of Smith's demands? One of the premier's demands is for Carney to scrap the Liberal goal of having no new gas vehicles sold in 10 years. Carney is not changing course on that one. Meanwhile, the federal Conservatives also backed Carney. They also wanted the nasty Liberal laws holding up development to be scrapped. They campaigned on it in the last election campaign. They voted with Carney on Bill C-5 since something was better than nothing. They didn't want to be seen as standing in the way of something moving forward. When the vote was over Carney went over and shook some Conservative hands. It is easy to shake hands when you won the game. Devin Dreeshen, Smith's point man on transportation and economic corridors who is hoping real hard for that bitumen pipeline, weighs in on a worst-case scenario. 'If the kind words from the Carney government ring hollow because there are no projects in Alberta being fast-tracked we are right back to Square 1 where we have a federal government that says it is Team Canada but is doing everything to not help Team Canada win.' Latest National Stories

Montreal Gazette

a day ago

• Montreal Gazette

Pablo Rodriguez can't treat anglos ‘as the party wallet'

The Corner Booth Pablo Rodriguez is the new leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, but is he the right man for the job? As pointed out by The Gazette's Philip Authier, Rodriguez 'has his work cut out for him.' Political strategist Jennifer Crane, founder of Connexion Quebec Public Affairs, and political analyst Raphaël Melançon, founder of Trafalgar Stratégies, join hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week's episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to break down Rodriguez's closer-than-expected leadership win, and whether he can bring Quebecers back to the party in time for the 2026 election. 'I was surprised he didn't win as solidly as he thought he was going to win,' Crane said. 'Most people I know who are anglos voted for (second-place finisher) Charles Milliard.' A new Pallas Data poll shows the provincial Liberals sit in second place under their new leader, only five points back of the Parti Québécois. With Paul St-Pierre Plamondon's party ahead and François Legault's CAQ a distant third, Melançon says sovereignty is back on the table, meaning Rodriguez can position the Liberals as a refuge for voters who don't want a referendum. But Rodriguez will have to make inroads in the regions of Quebec, where his resumé as a Montreal-area federal cabinet minister under Justin Trudeau could complicate matters. 'He is an easy target to attack. He's an easy target for the PQ,' Melançon said. 'One thing I hope he doesn't import from the federal Liberals is to treat the English-speaking community as the party wallet,' Crane said. 'And then we're expected to turn around and say 'oh, we didn't notice you're putting a knife in our back.'' In the episode, they also discussed Marwah Rizqy leading the Liberals in the legislature, as well as this fall's municipal election, which will see a new mayor get elected with Valérie Plante choosing to not run again. Projet Montréal's Luc Rabouin and Ensemble Montréal's Soraya Martinez Ferrada are in the running, but could we see a last-minute candidate emerge?