On November 7, ACFO-ACAF President Rob Hawkins and Director of Labour Relations Scott Chamberlain met with the employer to discuss the upcoming “refocusing of government spending”. While the employer withheld many details, here is some key information we were able to gather. 

Goal of cost-cutting exercise 

The employer aims to save approximately 15 billion dollars over the next four years, starting in 2025. While very few details were provided on how these savings will be achieved, it’s clear the employer is committed to making significant reductions over this period. 

What we know so far 

Details our team came away with from the meeting include: 

• Departments have been instructed to explore potential cost-saving measures and report back on how they can contribute to the overall savings goal. At this stage, it is not known how much each department will be asked to contribute to the overall cuts. 

• Departments have been directed to focus the cost-cutting exercise on temporary employees and contract workers first before considering indeterminate employees. 

• Certain entities will be exempt from this cost cutting exercise, including agencies, crown corporations, and departments with budgets of less than 25 million dollars. 

While this is all the information we have to share with our members at this stage, we will share more information as it becomes available. ACFO-ACAF will continue to advocate for transparency from the employer throughout this process, and we will do whatever we can to ensure that our members are protected.  

Important note 

We know that this may be an unsettling time for members, and we will be here to support and fight for the CT Community. However, at this time, we ask that ACFO-ACAF members refrain from contacting our Labour Relations Advisors regarding how they may be individually impacted by this announcement. Since the specific impact on individual departments is not yet known, we are unable to provide further details.