Treasury Board not tracking impact of public service job cuts on equity groups
Key Takeaways
- Advocates warn job cuts' effects on public servants in equity groups are unassessed
- The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says it is not tracking equity impacts
- Government committed to cutting about 40,000 public service jobs from a 2023-24 peak of 368,000
Disability representation in public service
Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty, said people with disabilities in the public service will be anxious because many are in entry-level positions, which makes them vulnerable during layoffs.
“OTTAWA - Advocates are raising concerns about how job cuts will affect public servants in equity groups — something the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says it’s not tracking”
The most recent employment equity report for the public service says that as of March 2024, 9.7 per cent of federal executives were people with disabilities, up from 4.6 per cent in March 2019.
Khedr said the lack of central tracking leaves critical decisions to individual department leaders, creating a risk that equity-denied groups may be more vulnerable in terms of who gets cut and who stays.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2026.
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