Federal government issues nearly 70,000 early-retirement notices to public servants

The federal government has started issuing early-retirement notices to public servants as part of its effort to reduce the size of the bureaucracy by nearly 30,000 jobs over the next three years.

About 68,000 notices have already been issued, said Mohammad Kamal, director of communications with the Treasury Board Secretariat.

The government’s 2025 budget, passed in November, called for the public service to decline by about 40,000 jobs from its peak in 2023-2024. Of that total, another 30,000 jobs will have to be shed by the end of the 2028-2029 fiscal year for the government to hit its targets.

“The Early Retirement Initiative is proceeding with an emphasis on voluntary, structured options to retire early with clarity and predictability,” Kamal wrote in an email. “We will continue to provide employees with updates on this work and the broader Comprehensive Expenditure Review as they become available.”

The government says it plans to achieve job cuts “to the greatest extent possible” through attrition. To do so, it is lowering the age-eligibility rules for retirement and offering what amounts to $1.5 billion in incentives.

Under the plan, workers who joined the public service before 2013 and are over age 50 or who joined after 2013 and are over age 55 will be eligible for early retirement with no penalty if they have 10 years of employment and at least two years of pensionable service.

The program is expected to run for one year.

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