Singh slams Carney, Poilievre over proposed public service cuts

Article content

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says cutting federal public service jobs under the threat of a tariff-induced recession is the wrong thing to do.

During a press conference in downtown Ottawa Friday, Singh took aim at Liberal Leader Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for their intentions to curb the size of the public service. Carney has said he plans to cap the number of public servants, while Poilievre’s party has signalled that it would cut 17,000 government employees a year through attrition alone. The size of the public service has swelled to 367,772 workers in 2024 from 257,034 in 2015, when the Liberals were elected. 

Recommended Videos

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Singh slams Carney, Poilievre over proposed public service cuts Back to video

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

“I reject the proposal of cutting jobs at the public sector — that’s the last thing we need to do right now,” he said after delivering a keynote address at the 2025 Progress Summit, a conference organized by the Broadbent Institute, a progressive think tank. “These are folks that provide the services we need, and with the uncertainty, there might be more services that we need to provide to Canadians.”

Singh pitched the NDP as a power broker on Parliament Hill that could hold a Liberal minority government to account if enough of the party’s candidates are elected. In his speech, he argued that a strong NDP presence in Parliament could help uphold the welfare state, including top-ups to employment insurance and increased health funding.

When discussing the size of the public service, Singh pointed to the need for more government workers to ensure strong government programs like employment insurance can support Canadians through a trade war.

“We’re going to need more public workers, we’re not going to need less of them,” Singh said. “I’m opposed to cuts at a time of uncertainty.”

Singh also said he supports public service unions in their fight for remote work, particularly as more unions prepare for bargaining their next contract after a public service strike in 2023. Singh slammed the Liberals for what he said was a broken promise to negotiate with the unions on working-from-home language in their contract.

“They broke their word, and I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” Singh said. “That breaks trust.”

After the strike, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the largest federal public sector union in Canada, reached what were called letters of agreement with the federal government, which the union said would avoid a “one-size-fits-all approach” to telework.

But in September 2024, the federal government required many public servants to start working from the office at least three days a week. They were previously required to work in offices just two days a week. PSAC and other unions met the decision with outrage and have filed a challenge in Federal Court to try to roll back the requirement.

When asked in a January Radio-Canada interview whether public servants should be allowed to work from home, Poilievre said that what matters is whether the work gets done.

In his remarks Friday, Singh also echoed conversations with public servants about how work from home helps with cost of living concerns, saying it’s “an important tool” to make like affordable.

The NDP have slouched in the polls in recent weeks, while the Liberals and Conservatives have been in a tight race.

Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed.