Statistics Canada will shed dozens of temporary contracts this fall. Photo by Justin Tang /THE CANADIAN PRESS Statistics Canada will scrap the contracts of 142 employees by Oct. 8 as part of cost-cutting measures.
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The federal department confirmed the workers impacted have term, casual, part-time and secondment agreements.
Exceptions to the new measure will be made only where essential to avoid significant impacts on the delivery of a program or service to Canadians, such as for the upcoming Census of Population and certain critical data collection roles, said Jada Cormier, a spokesperson for Statistics Canada said, in an emailed statement.
Some student hirings will continue at Statistics Canada in areas facing workforce gaps, Cormier added.
Other departments and agencies in the federal public service continue to bleed temporary workers as public service leadership scrambles to find savings.
Over the past year, thousands of temporary workers at the Canada Revenue Agency and Immigration, Citizenship and Refugee Canada have had their contracts ended as the federal government has tried to rein in the size of its workforce.
The federal public service ballooned to 367,772 individuals in 2024, from 257,034 in 2015. Last year, the public service saw a reduction of almost 10,000 jobs, according to the latest Treasury Board data.
The review involves a 7.5 per cent cut in 2025-26, 2.5 per cent in 2026-27 and 5 per cent in the 2027-28 fiscal year.
The Department of National Defence, Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will have a lower savings target of 2 per cent over three years.
Meanwhile, a number of government organizations, including the office of the auditor general and the Supreme Court of Canada will be spared by the exercise.
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