Federal immigration department to cut more than 3,300 jobs over three years

OTTAWA — The federal immigration department is set to cut roughly 3,300 jobs over the next three years.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Canada Employment and Immigration Union said in a joint statement issued Monday that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has not said who will be affected by the cuts.

The unions said more information is expected in mid-February but the cuts were brought up in a union-management meeting before staff were notified. Both unions are urging the government to cut down on outside contracting instead of downsizing staff.

In an internal memo obtained by The Canadian Press, the IRCC’s deputy minister Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar and associate deputy minister Scott Harris told employees that some permanent positions “will be eliminated,” along with “many” term positions.

“Although the affected functions have been identified, the individuals have not,” the memo said. “Our plan is to inform affected individuals first before we start to broaden the picture of how this impacts teams, sectors and the department.”

The memo said around 3,300 jobs will be cut over the next three years, with 20 per cent of the reductions hitting permanent employees. Letters will be sent to affected employees beginning in mid-February.

There will also be “significant reductions” in the department’s term workforce, the memo said, adding some term contracts will not be renewed or will end early. Affected term employees will be given at least 30 days’ notice, likely also in mid-February.

“We are building an organization that is fit for purpose, fit for capacity and fit for our budget,” the memo said, adding that changes to funding have added pressure “in an already constrained budgetary situation.”

Jessica Kingsbury, a spokesperson for the IRCC, said in an email Monday that budget decisions will focus on “maintaining border security and enforcing immigration laws, while evaluating how best to deliver our programs and services.”

“Canada’s immigration goals are a top priority,” Kingsbury said. “That is why we will continue to identify opportunities to streamline our work and invest in the priorities that matter most.”

Public service employees have been braced for layoffs since the government launched its efforts to refocus federal spending in 2023.

The government is looking to find $15.8 billion in savings by 2027—28 and $4.8 billion per year after that.

The memo said planned spending reductions at the departmental level start at $237 million in 2025-26 and are projected to reach $336 million by 2027-28. It means every sector and region will be affected across the department.

“It’s clear our department will be smaller in the future,” the memo said. “We’ve been working under an ever-increasing budget and need to learn to live within a defined — and reduced — budget moving forward.”

The department said it has reduced its workforce through attrition and redeployment of employees and has introduced staffing controls to limit external hires and evaluate all appointments based on budget and operational needs.

“The past several years were a period of rapid growth and change for IRCC,” department spokesperson Jeffrey MacDonald said in an email Friday. “We responded to global crises including a pandemic, increased both permanent and temporary resident admissions, and moved toward a more integrated, modernized and centralized working environment in order to help speed up application processing globally.

“These measures were largely supported by temporary funding and were not meant to be permanent.”

The PSAC and CEIU said staff at the department are essential to the work of processing citizenship and permanent residency applications, issuing passports and conducting interviews.

“Last month, immigration processing wait times continued to reach record-breaking backlog levels, and these cuts will only worsen an already dire situation,” said CEIU national president Rubina Boucher in a media statement. “Families longing to reunite, businesses grappling with critical labour shortages and a health-care system desperate for skilled workers will all suffer the consequences of this reckless decision.”

In response to the planned cuts, Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, sent a letter to Immigration Minister Marc Miller asking that the reductions be put on hold or at least slowed down until Parliament resumes and “a clearer national direction can be set as we now face a looming crisis in our relationship with the United States.”

“A strong and well-equipped federal workforce is essential to Canada’s defence against external pressures, especially given our increasingly adversarial neighbour,” Prier said.

According to the Government of Canada website, 13,092 public servants worked at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in 2024. The total population of the public service in 2024 was 367,772.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 20, 2025.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press