Roughly 3,000 indeterminate employees at Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) received affected notices last week, over 1,400 of whom are members of Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU).

An affected letter does not necessarily mean an employee is losing their job, but rather that positions are being reduced within a work unit.

A number of ESDC term employees were also notified their contracts will end early or will not be renewed, and ESDC is expected to issue another round of term cut notices in February.

In total, 5,313 positions are being eliminated at ESDC, plus 98 executive positions. This includes 3,391 positions that were already eliminated.

“Canadians are struggling to get by and these programs are often a lifeline for people, businesses and communities,” said Rubina Boucher, National President, CEIU. “Carney is cutting at a time when these programs matter most. I am worried for our members and for people who rely on disability benefits, tariff-support measures, Old Age Security, Employment Insurance and plenty more.”

Replacing workers with AI

An ESDC memo circulated late last year noted “significant potential to drive adoption of digital service channels such as Old Age Security online applications, to further deploy optical character recognition and robotic process automation, and to embrace innovative and responsible AI.”

Instead of investing in the experienced workers who care for the Canadian public, the government is increasingly turning to automation and AI to replace human decision-making. This increases the risk of errors in sensitive cases where a human touch is irreplaceable and raises serious questions about information security and privacy. Look at the costly mistakes of the Pheonix pay debacle as we approach the tenth anniversary.

CEIU to launch campaign against cuts

CEIU is launching a national campaign against job cuts for both indeterminate and term employees that is set to launch soon. The campaign aims to highlight how these job cuts impact Canadians, businesses, and communities.