The Aporia · Federal public service has lost 23,000 staffers in two years: budget watchdog

Federal public service has lost 23,000 staffers in two years: budget watchdog

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Morrison, C. (2026, September 15). Federal public service has lost 23,000 staffers in two years: budget watchdog. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/federal-public-service-has-lost-23-000-staffers-in-two-years-budget-watchdog/article_4fe5a9db-ef0b-5231-aae4-f36cde29351e.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Quick Summary

The federal public service in Canada has seen a decline of over 23,000 employees since the second quarter of 2024, according to data from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Departments like National Defence and the Canadian Space Agency have increased staffing, while others such as the Canada Revenue Agency and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada have experienced significant reductions. The parliamentary budget officer Annette Ryan released an online tool to assist parliamentarians in assessing these changes against the government's commitment to reduce public service by 10% by 2028-29.

Written by AI on 2026-09-15, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Canada's federal public service has lost more than 23,000 staffers over the last two years, according to a report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The new online tool estimates that there are currently 344,970 federal employees, marking a 6.5% decrease from the number recorded in the previous two-year period. Departments like National Defence and the Communications Security Establishment have seen significant staff increases, while agencies such as the Canada Revenue Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada experienced notable decreases. The Parliamentary Budget Officer Annette Ryan released this tool to assist parliamentarians and Canadians in holding the government accountable for its commitment to reduce the size of the federal public service by 10% by 2028-29, as outlined in Budget 2025.

Written for “Public Service Staff Decline” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

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Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

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Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

0 of 12 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

64/100

Toronto Star's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Politics

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-09-15 · how these are computed

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Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

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Who wrote this

Catherine Morrison

25 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction

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Also by Catherine Morrison

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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 25 articles by Catherine Morrison →

Topics

Canada Canadians National Defence OTTAWA the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer

Subjects

Canadians NORP · 2× the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer ORG · 2× Canada GPE · 1× Elections Canada ORG · 1× Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada ORG · 1× National Defence ORG · 1× OTTAWA GPE · 1× the Canada Revenue Agency ORG · 1× the Canadian Space Agency ORG · 1× the Communications Security Establishment ORG · 1×

Narrative

Parliamentary budget officer Annette Ryan said in a news release that her office created the tool to help parliamentarians and Canadians hold the government to account on its Budget 2025 commitment to reduce the size of the federal public service by 10 per cent by 2028-29.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-15

2026-09-15 · Toronto Star

Federal public service has lost 23,000 staffers in two years: budget watchdog · assertive framing

Claims (12 extracted, 0 hedged)

The federal public service has shed more than 23,000 staffers over the last two years, says Canada’s parliamentary spending watchdog. asserted

watchdog → shed → years

A new online tool released by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates there were 344,970 federal employees in the second quarter of this year, down 6.5 per cent from two years ago. asserted

tool → release → year

The departments and agencies that gained the most staff over the last two years were National Defence, the Communications Security Establishment, Elections Canada, Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada and the Canadian Space Agency. asserted

that → gain → years

The departments and agencies that lost the most employees were the Canada Revenue Agency, Employment and Social Development Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada. asserted

that → lose → Canada

parliamentarians → say → 2028

“Parliamentarians need reliable and readily available information in order to review changes in government employment levels in order to question ministers about what that means for public services to Canadians,” said Ryan. asserted

Ryan → need → Canadians

“This tool provides them with objective, timely data that they can use to support their work.” asserted

they → provide → work

The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer found that 9,809 of the workers lost were term employees. asserted

9,809 → find → workers

The federal government launched an early retirement program as part of its efforts to cut the number of public servants. asserted

government → launch → servants

The government received 10,006 applications and, as of this month, more than 9,400 were found to have met the criteria. asserted

9,400 → receive → criteria

Martin Potvin, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, said in an email that there are no plans to open a second early retirement application window. asserted

Potvin → say → window

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2026. asserted

report → publish → Press