Canada Border Services Agency cutting positions at national headquarters

A Canada Border Services Agency patch is seen on the uniform of a CBSA officer at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Friday, October 3, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) will cut 348 positions that report to or are in the national headquarters in Ottawa as part of the federal government’s plan to cut 28,000 positions by 2029.

The agency tells CTV News Ottawa 708 employees will receive workforce adjustment notices as it implements a two per cent budget cut.

“This reduction cannot be achieved without impacts. We will be reducing our workforce by 348 employees, both executives and non‑executives,” the CBSA said in a statement Thursday evening.

“To meet these reductions, we will affect 708 employees. These reductions are exclusively for positions reporting to or in a national headquarters branch.”

• Latest information on federal public service, including notices, job cuts, return to office rules and more

Union warns ‘no one is safe’ from cuts

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) said more than 400 of its members at the CBSA received notices last week that they could lose their jobs.

The federal union says job cuts at the CBSA and a reduction in staff at the Bureau of Pension Advocates show “no one is safe” from the federal government’s “sweeping cuts to public service.”

“Prime Minister (Mark) Carney is using the same old playbook that (Jean) Chrétien and (Stephen) Harper did, and we’re going to get the same bad results,” said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC national president.

“This government needs to stop recycling failed austerity measures and start investing in the public services people in Canada rely on every day.”

The union added the workforce adjustment notices are being distributed at a “time of increasing pressure on border operations.”

“Cutting frontline capacity and expertise will weaken Canada’s ability to respond to emerging risks and ensure the smooth movement of people and goods,” the union said.

The federal budget, released in November, called on the CBSA to reduce its budget by $52 million a year over four years. The budget said the CBSA will find the savings by reducing the cost of using and maintaining its equipment and IT assets, delay replacing vehicles and reviewing the “structure of its national headquarters to standardize organizational structures.”

The Canada Border Services Agency said Budget 2025 and the $1.3-billion Border Plan announced in December 2024 provide funding to support the hiring of 1,000 new CBSA officers to “support growth in our operational needs.”

“Whether it is countering the new ways in which organized crime groups seeks to smuggle contraband into and out of the country, or supporting the Canadian economy through revenue collection and trade measures, we will be expanding many of our frontline and operational teams,” the CBSA said in a statement.

“At the same time, we recognize the need to operate more efficiently in our policy, program, and internal services functions.”

According to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the CBSA had 17,234 employees as of March 31, 2025, up from 14,113 employees in March 2015.

RCMP job cuts

On Thursday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a total of 285 employees at its national headquarters in Ottawa received affected letters, “signalling their area of work is being impacted.” The RCMP did not say how many positions will be cut.

“This is not the number of employees who will be declared surplus,” the RCMP said.

“The final number is pending the outcome of the Career Transition and (workforce adjustment) processes, voluntary departure, attrition and early retirement.”

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says more than 24,000 employees and executives have received workforce adjustment letters since the start of December. The government plans to cut more than 9,000 positions from departments in the core public administration, which includes the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency.

• Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App