How will public service cuts impact city? Here’s what Ottawa’s mayor said

Article content

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, Sutcliffe said he was thinking about families and community members who would be impacted by the cuts and the uncertainty.

Article content

Article content

Article content

“Let’s remember these are members of our community who are facing the loss of their livelihood,” he said.

Article content

Article content

Sutcliffe’s comments came less than an hour after the federal budget was tabled in the House of Commons, where it was announced that the public service would lose around 40,000 jobs from its peak in 2023-24.

Article content

Article content

This is about a 10 per cent reduction of the public service’s headcount, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives projected this could mean a reduction of 15,300 public service jobs in the National Capital Region alone.

Article content

Sutcliffe said he wanted the federal government to come up with a transition plan for these workers, and to provide details about how much of these jobs would be lost through attrition and early retirement instead of cuts.

Article content

“The impact does not have to be enormous if we’re working together on a plan for those employees, as there were during other periods of transition in the public service,” he said.

Article content

Article content

“If there are supports in place to retrain those workers and launch new careers, if there are other investments that are being made locally that will lead to those people transitioning to different jobs, those kinds of things will minimize the impact.

Article content

Article content

“But it’s still a significant number.”

Article content

The mayor added he had raised these concerns to Prime Minister Mark Carney before, and he would continue to have those conversations with federal officials.

Article content

This includes conversations about diversifying Ottawa’s economy, he said.

Article content

Last week, Sutcliffe and Invest Ottawa CEO Sonya Shorey made a pitch to make Ottawa-Gatineau a hub for innovation, investment and jobs for the defence sector.

Article content

“I think we need the support of the federal government and the collaboration of the federal government on a plan as we continue to transition Ottawa’s economy and diversify Ottawa’s economy,” Sutcliffe told reporters.

Article content

“If the federal government supports us on that and some of the investments that they’re making in defence spending go towards companies in Ottawa, that will help with the transition.”

Article content

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

Article content