OTTAWA – The Agriculture Canada bureaucracy is much smaller this year than last but so far, government cuts have not hit the departmental workforce as hard as predicted.
Agriculture Canada’s fate was one of the surprises when the government last week published an analysis of its efforts to cut the size of the public service.
The analysis also shows those leaving the public service are likely to be men. While women make up a greater percentage of the federal workforce, most still are in the lower salary brackets.
Read Also
Ag in Motion innovation awards showcase top 2025 ag technology
The 2025 Ag in Motion Innovation Awards celebrated winners across five categories: agronomics, agtech, business solutions, environmental sustainability and equipment.
Last year, when it announced a three-year plan to cut 45,000 civil service jobs, the government said Agriculture Canada would be one of the hardest hit. After year one, it is not the case.
Overall, the federal public service shrank 7.8 percent to 225,619 during the year ended March 31, according to Treasury Board figures.
The Agriculture Canada reduction was 5.3 percent, to 9,581 permanent, casual and contract employees.
Figures compiled by the Treasury Board show the department had 778 fewer full-time employees April 1 than it had a year earlier.
Contract positions
However, some of those cuts were offset by the hiring of 247 more people on temporary contracts. While most departments were cutting both permanent and contract positions, Agriculture Canada managers were replacing permanent employees with contract workers.
Hardest hit departments after one year were: Natural Resources Canada, down 17.6 percent; National Defence, down 17.4 percent; Public Works and Government Services, down 14.3 percent; and Human Resources Development Canada, down 10.9 percent.
The government is cutting staff positions through a combination of buyouts, early retirement and attrition.
Across Western Canada, 3,366 federal jobs were eliminated during the year.
British Columbia, with more than 20,000 federal civil servants, accounted for close to half the job loss.
Saskatchewan, with the smallest federal workforce, lost the highest percentage. Seven percent of the 5,885 people who held federal government jobs in the province in March 1995 lost their positions during the next year.
The Treasury Board analysis suggests the departing employees tend to be male, increasing the percentage of women in the workforce to 48.4 from 47.8 the previous year.
That trend is likely to continue, since the majority of employees under 45 years of age are female.
