The number of workers at the federal nerve centre for emergency response was slashed by about 50 per cent earlier this year, according to the union, which says the cuts have affected the government’s response to an already brutal wildfire season in Canada.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada said in a statement Thursday that about 60 employees at the Government Operations Centre in Ottawa received workforce adjustment letters in January that eliminated their positions, representing approximately half the workforce.
The union added it has heard from its members on the ground that most of those affected workers have since left, though PSAC did not say if those workers had gone to other public service jobs or been terminated.
“The government operations centre (GOC) is responsible for coordinating our national emergency response,” Sharon DeSousa, PSAC’s national president, said in the statement.
“Gutting it by almost half puts people across the country at risk, including frontline workers who are battling wildfires, supporting evacuations, and risking their lives.”
The staff cuts were first reported by the Ottawa Citizen.
The office of Emergency Preparedness Minister Eleanor Olszewski told Global News the union’s statement was “inaccurate.”
It said the operations centre’s “core” workforce has been reduced by 10 employees to 100 since last summer “largely due to the consolidation of back office functions.”
“Public Safety Canada’s first priority is the safety and security of Canadians,” the office said in a statement. “The GOC continues to operate full capacity and has the ability to respond to all operational requirements, including those of the current wildfire season.”
The department added Public Safety Canada, which oversees the operations centre, is able to surge additional staff for short-term needs in the event of emergencies or enhanced security events like the FIFA World Cup and last year’s G7 Summit.
The operations centre identifies high-risk events and provides round-the-clock coordination and support to key national players for national emergencies such as wildfires, floods and earthquakes. The government opened a new “state-of-the-art facility” for the operations centre in November.
Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the centre on Sunday to meet with workers and discuss the federal wildfire response in northern Ontario, which he said in a post on X required mobilizing “more than 5,000 firefighters and nearly 300 waterbombers, helicopters, and evacuation aircraft to contain, control, and mitigate the fires.”
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“It’s an enormous, complex effort that ultimately depends on dedicated and brave individuals who work relentlessly to keep everyone safe,” Carney posted.
That visit came before Carney attended the World Cup final in New Jersey alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he discussed the wildfire situation with Carney at the match.
Trump has threatened tariffs on Canada over smoke that has poured across the border and blanketed U.S. cities including New York and Detroit. The president has accused the Carney government of not doing enough to battle the fires.
Carney has led an effort to sharply reduce the size of the public service in order to find government cost savings. Departmental plans released this spring for the 2026-27 fiscal year showed federal departments and agencies are looking to cut more than 12,000 full-time equivalent jobs over the next three years.
Public Safety Canada’s departmental plan allocated $1.18 billion toward improving its emergency management strategies, which includes using artificial intelligence to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Yet the plan also warned that the push to reduce spending was “juxtaposed against pressures to respond to new threats and priorities, attract specialized expertise and retain talent.”
“This poses capacity, operational and service delivery challenges,” it adds.
Conservatives on Thursday blasted the workforce cuts amid another dangerous wildfire season, which has also impacted provinces like British Columbia.
“The first thing a government should do is keep citizens safe,” emergency preparedness critic Blake Richards said in a statement.
“Canadians expect their government to strengthen emergency preparedness, not weaken the teams responsible for coordinating the federal response when their lives, homes, and communities are at risk.”
NDP Leader Avi Lewis also criticized the cuts in a post on X, which he said brought the workforce in the operations centre “from 100 to just 50 workers.”
“In other words, to advance major projects ‘in the national interest’ (like pipelines and military hardware), the PM has slashed the number of public sector workers who coordinate the response to emergencies ‘of a national interest,'” he said.
—with files from Global’s Jillian Piper and the Canadian Press
And this is probably just one example of Liberal sabotage.
Yet CRA still has double amount of pressure communist Liberal controlled Canada. Yet tax returns not completed because DEI and foreign employees just don’t understand the simplicity of the positions. Also have over 30 employees that stole 48 thousand during Chinese Covid released flu.
All governments are to blame for this disaster! Provincial and federal! They have all cut firefighting capabilities and healthcare! Trying to kill as many and destroy as much as possible for some f8ckin reason!
The Liberals want wildfires to burn. It amplifies their Climate Change narrative.
To think that wildfires are a provincial responsibility. – no mention of that??? The Federal response would be to coordinate, or liason with the Armed Forces, or international support. – quite a small job. Bob is right.
You would never know that fact if you lived in the Toronto area – all the media blame Ford for everything from rainstorms & wildfires to the flu, tic infestations, and global famine & mid east conflicts That is life in a Chow-NDP bubble
You are pretty safe from wild fires in Canada, when you are jetting around the world feasting on beef tenderloin, Scottish salmon, pan-seared lamb rump, and Luxury Normandy Buttercups…
Beware of the LPC cuts
They will mindlessly cut essential services and continue squandering money on ludicrous causes
Obviously, there’s logic to that. Anyone spotted it ? Rocking horses are beginning to look intelligent in comparison.
The budget was reduced so that they could send the $ to Ukraine, to be embezzled by Zelensky, Chrystia Freeland, and Trudeau, no doubt.
Bob B totally agree.
Still probably 50% too many.
I highly suspect automaton and efficiency effort will solve the problem eventually.
Basically what you had is 120 people sitting around 8 months of the doing nothing and half are busy in the summer because everyone is on summer vacation.
Union lifers.
So Trump’s a NAZl PED0PHILE who can’t control the over 400 out of control wildfires currently burning in the USA
So Frumps right again! Elbows up Carney Clowns