ESDC to cut 800 jobs by June; CRA absorbs over 3,000 losses since 2024 amid budget review
More than 3,000 jobs have been cut at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) since 2024, including term contracts and permanent positions, as the agency responds to ongoing budget constraints and federal savings directives.
According to the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE), affected positions include debt collectors and call centre workers. The union is now calling for “an immediate moratorium” on further job cuts.
CRA Commissioner Bob Hamilton and Deputy Commissioner Jean-François Fortin told staff that up to 280 additional employees will lose their jobs, according to The Canadian Press.
The officials said the agency must “reassess the way it works” in light of the losses—reconsidering project volume, streamlining processes, and finding ways to innovate.
“It is likely that some internal services will be impacted, with some services being eliminated entirely,” the message stated.
The Digital Transformation Program Branch will no longer function independently and will have its work absorbed into other areas.
Job cuts will affect various branches across the CRA but will mainly impact staff in the National Capital Region. Executive roles are also included in the reductions.
Hamilton and Fortin said the CRA cannot meet the Government of Canada’s policy to offer affected permanent employees a “reasonable job offer” in other departments.
“Unlike previous (workforce adjustments), due to fiscal constraints, guaranteed reasonable job offers cannot be provided to most of the employees affected,” they said.
The CRA plans to first seek volunteers willing to leave.
CRA spokesperson Etienne Biram said the agency’s budget has been impacted by several factors, including the sunsetting of COVID-19 program funding.
The number of CRA employees dropped from 59,155 in 2024 to 52,499 in 2025, according to the Government of Canada website.
However, that number remains about 20 percent higher than in 2019, when there were 43,908 employees.
UTE President Marc Brière said in a news release, “With every position eliminated, processing delays grow longer, calls go unanswered, files pile up, and citizens are left behind in uncertainty.”
He added that remaining workers are being pushed beyond their limits, expected to do more with less while facing increasing stress and job insecurity.
CRA is one of several departments facing workforce reductions.
Matthew Brett, a spokesperson for the Canada Employment and Immigration Union, confirmed that Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is terminating approximately 800 term positions in the passport program.
These losses will take effect nationwide by the end of June.
A spokesperson for ESDC said via email that the decision was “not taken lightly” and described it as “necessary.”
The department said, “Service Canada, which delivers the Passport Program in Canada on behalf of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), continually assesses its valued and highly skilled workforce levels to align with forecasted volumes.”
It added that workforce levels for the Passport Program are being adjusted by the end of June 2025 to match a decreased volume of passport applications forecasted by IRCC for 2025–26.
According to Treasury Board Secretariat records, ESDC had 39,154 employees in 2025, up slightly from 39,089 in 2021.
The department expanded rapidly during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, from 27,115 in 2020 to 32,697 in 2021.
Federal government staffing fell by 10,000 between 2024 and 2025—from 367,772 to 357,965—marking the first annual decline in a decade.
In 2015, there were 258,979 people working in the federal public service.
