http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...tawa-federal-public-service-cuts.html?cmp=rss
More than 2,000 federal employees in the Ottawa-Gatineau region received redundancy notices Wednesday, which means their jobs could be cut.
Employees have about 90 days to decide to leave the public service, re-train for other jobs in the same department or compete for other jobs. The change would take affect within one year.
The overall mood among federal government workers was very gloomy.
"I have friends that found out today they got cut and I've know them for thirty years," one worker told CBC News. "It's like a funeral."
Some Ottawa workers went home after receiving the letters because they became emotional, their co-workers said.
The notices were handed out in many different departments. The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) said a total of 2,225 of their members got notices in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
Here is the breakdown where some of those notices were handed out:
Canadian International Development Agency 529
Health Canada 485
Public Health Agency of Canada 275
Agriculture 237
Natural Resources 127
Industry Canada 120
Privy Council Office 104
Citizenship and Immigration 79
Public Works and Government Services 55
Treasury Board 54
Environment 46
Public Safety 40
HRSDC 33
Veterans Affairs 15
Transport Canada 10
Immigration and Refugee Board 7
Department of Economic Diversification 6
Centre for Information & Community Services 2
*Not included: regional breakdown not available for Canada Border Services Agency and Canadian Heritage
The government is trying to eliminate more than 19,000 jobs across Canada over the next three years. More than 5,500 notices were handed out across Canada.
PSAC warned the job cut numbers could be higher.