Thousands tap early exit plan as RCMP, CBSA, and spy agencies keep key workers on the job
Front-line Mounties and border officers are watching Ottawa’s early retirement window swing open for thousands of colleagues – but stay firmly shut for them.
According to CTV News, the federal government issued about 68,000 notices last December telling public servants they could be eligible to retire early with no pension penalty.
As of April 17, 4,788 public servants had applied for the Early Retirement Incentive (ERI).
The Ottawa Citizen reports that about 3,700 of those applications came in the opening days after applications went live on March 27, once the Budget 2025 implementation bill received royal assent.
The ERI allows eligible public servants to avoid “costly penalties for retiring early,” as per the Ottawa Citizen, and is a core tool in Ottawa’s plan to cut roughly 30,000 jobs in the federal public service over several years.
CTV News notes that Budget 2025 sets a target of 28,000 positions eliminated by 2029, including 12,000 employees and 350 executives, largely through attrition and early retirement.
CBC Newssays the RCMP has also ring-fenced most of its front-line and specialist ranks.
The ERI is not available to regular members (police officers) or to civilian members working in forensics, intelligence analysis or as specialized investigators for cyber or financial crime.
CTV News adds that regular and civilian members hired under the RCMP Act are not eligible.
Both outlets report that RCMP public service employees remain eligible to apply.
The RCMP says that on top of age, pensionable service and years of employment, the commissioner must attest that “the organization needs to reduce its workforce,” that “services to Canadians will be maintained” and that “current and future operational or business needs will continue to be met.”
An RCMP spokesperson told CTV decisions will be “case-by-case.”
CBC News notes that the RCMP has long struggled with “chronic shortages and a recruitment crisis,” and that a recent auditor general’s report found it has not recruited enough new officers or assigned them effectively.
The article reports that the CBSA is also narrowing access to ERI even as Ottawa commits $1.3bn to bolster border security and hire 1,000 new CBSA workers.
A CBSA spokesperson told the same outlet that employees on the front line at the border or inland, including those in enforcement, intelligence, targeting, trade compliance, recourse, risk assessment and national security screening, “will not be considered for the early retirement incentive program.”
CTV News says other “operational roles” – including enforcement, intelligence, risk assessment, national screening, trade compliance and certain IT and science positions – are also excluded, though ERI applications from non‑operational employees “may be accepted on a case‑by‑case basis.”
Frontline CBSA officers may instead retire under the expanded Operational Service Early Retirement Program, which lets eligible members retire at any age with 25 years of “actual operational service” with no penalty.
Benefits and Pension Monitor reported last week that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) “doesn’t expect it will be able to approve many applications” because of “continued operational pressures and growth requirements.”
CSIS said its central role in ensuring “the safety, security and prosperity of Canada and all Canadians” relies on its capacity to “maintain and grow the full spectrum of our workforce,” and that, “accordingly, CSIS is not undertaking any workforce adjustments.”
Magali Hébert, a CSIS spokesperson, later told CBC News the agency will review each ERI application but has “no organizational requirement to reduce its workforce,” and that “continued operational pressures and growth requirements mean we anticipate not being able to approve many ERI requests.”
Now, other security and intelligence agencies are drawing similar lines.
CBC News reports that the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) will not participate in the ERI at all, saying that “expanding and sustaining” its workforce “is essential to meeting our mandate and protecting Canada’s national security.”
CSE spokesperson Janny Bender Asselin said that as Canada’s national cyber security and foreign intelligence agency, CSE faces an “increasingly complex threat environment” and growing operational demands.
Against that backdrop, public service unions have filed policy grievances, the Ottawa Citizen reports.
They warn the ERI could hollow out institutional knowledge, argue it circumvents long‑standing workforce adjustment provisions and object to using a Public Service Pension Fund surplus to fund the program.
