A Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) review released Tuesday found that the 2025-26 departmental plans for all federal government agencies combined will reach 445,000 full-time equivalent employees in 2024-25, an increase of over 13,000 full-time equivalent employees compared to last year’s plans.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) accounted for about one-third of this increase.
Other departments with significant upward revisions to last year’s plans include Employment and Social Development Canada, Canada Border Services Agency and Indigenous Services Canada.
However, full-time equivalent employee counts reported in departmental plans are annual figures and may fail to capture certain in-year trends.
For example, monthly data from the Treasury Board Secretariat shows a net decrease of more than 8,000 full-time equivalent roles between March 2024 and March 2025. In that period, the CRA has shrunk its service by about 6,000 full-time equivalent employees, mainly due to a decline in term positions.
From 2025-26 onwards, the number of planned full-time equivalent roles is expected to decline to 415,000 by 2027-28. Even with the projected decline, the plans still leave the number of roles well above the pre-pandemic peak of 382,000 in 2019-20.