The main officials of the indigenous services of Canada warned the staff to meet with the budget cuts of Prime Minister Mark Carney will not be easy and will affect jobs and operations.
In an internal email seen by indigenous CBC, the attached ministers informed employees about the initiative “to present ambitious savings proposals” and reduce the expense of up to 15 percent in the next three years.
“This will imply difficult decisions that will affect our programs and activities, as well as our workforce,” said Vice Minister Gina Wilson and the associated vice minister Michelle Kovacevic on July 8.
The deputies said they will work in these proposals in the coming weeks, with the aim of presenting them in the spring of 2026. But deliberations and decisions will be subject to the confidence of the cabinet until then, they added. That means they will keep secret.
“We recognize that this news can be difficult to listen, and that uncertainty can create stress,” said email.
Carney has been repeating the mantra of “spending less, investing more” while committing to control government spending. The public service grew greatly under the government of Trudeau, to almost 358,000 in 2025 from about 257,000 people in 2015, according to the Secretariat of the Treasury Board.
ISC reached an estimated $ 27.7 billion in expenses the last fiscal year and already forecast a budget reduction. The email of the deputies confirms that the ISC, like other departments, was asked to be aimed at “programs and activities that have a lower performance, are not central to the federal mandate, duplicated or misaligned with the government’s priorities.”
Labor groups are already increasing alarms, and a union that represents federal government workers who say that the cuts “look and feel like austerity and harm everyone in Canada that depend on vital public services.”
“Reducing jobs means reducing services. Totada complete,” said the president of the National Public Service Alliance, Sharon Desusa, in a statement.
It is not clear about the message of Wilson and Kovacevic if there will be cuts of programs and losses of jobs at ISC, which is responsible for Indian law, as well as vital services such as medical care, education, infrastructure, drinking water and family and family services.
The ISC budget is already ready to decrease in the next three years, since the money of the program spent by the Trudeau Government is exhausted or “sunset”. The department predicts spending $ 25.3 billion this year, $ 21.4 billion in 2026-27 and $ 20.1 billion in 2027-28.
This means that ISC is already online for more than $ 5 billion in possible budget reductions.
A spokesman for the Minister of Indigenous Services, Mandy Gull-Mascy, said the minister was not available to comment at this time and sent a request for comments to the department.
In a statement, ISC said that the 15 percent objective would not include the reduction of planned expenses of $ 5 billion.
“ISC is still committed to reconciliation and effective service for indigenous peoples,” said the statement.
Internal restructuring proposed
The changes do not stop there.
The day after announcing the expenditure review, ISC’s deputy ministers announced an internal restructuring proposed in an internal email also seen by indigenous CBC. Restructuring was in process since February 2025, according to email, and is announced as a “sustainability review strategy.”
While reorganization seems not related to cuts, the moment of the main consecutive announcements raises the question of how the two initiatives will function simultaneously.
According to the email of July 9, the restructured ISC would include at least five new sectors. Among the most significant changes there would be the creation of a “regional delivery sector” that will consolidate the health branch of the first nations and Inuit with the ISC regional operations.
The Cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Carney has had the task of finding ‘ambitious savings’, with the aim of a 7.5 percent cut in federal expenditure next year and more cuts in the following years. Power & Politics asks Sahir Khan, executive vice president of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Democracy and former officer of parliamentary budget, where those cuts could come from.
The deputies said that a main team of Jordan will remain in their place to try to reduce the request for orders and improve the quality of children’s services.
“We believe that the changes announced today, along with a new approach to responsibility, digital tools, litigation management and governance, will help us better support and equip indigenous peoples to provide their own services,” they wrote.
They did not say what sectors are being eliminated, if any, or how restructuring can affect the work.
In his statement to indigenous CBC, ISC said the new structure will be in place in April 2026.
