Federal Budget 2025

Dear colleagues,

Further to the Clerk’s message to all employees last night, I would like to provide you with more information on Budget 2025: Canada Strong, and the measures in it relating to Parks Canada and the broader federal public service. These measures will support the government’s priority of spending less on government operations and investing more to strengthen the country.

Budget 2025 reaffirms the essential role Parks Canada plays in building stronger connections between Canadians and the country’s natural and cultural heritage, empowering our teams and communities, and protecting treasured places for generations to come.

Budget 2025 confirms the renewal of the Canada Strong Pass, a national initiative designed to help Canadians, especially youth, discover and celebrate the country at a lower cost. It proposes to provide $116.3 million over two years, starting in 2025-26, for Parks Canada, Canadian Heritage and Transport Canada to renew the Canada Strong Pass for the holiday season, and then again for summer 2026. Parks Canada team members played a central role, from national office planning to field unit implementation, in the Canada Strong Pass throughout a successful summer 2025 – and I know we will continue with the same dedication to deliver meaningful experiences for Canadians in the coming year.

Another notable announcement is the commitment to renewed funding for an initiative that is important to Parks Canada: the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS). Budget 2025 has committed $307.9 million for all departments. This will help Parks Canada’s Youth Experience and Employment Program (YEEP) continue to create opportunities for young Canadians to gain work experience in conservation, tourism, science, and forestry.

Budget 2025 also outlines $13 billion in annual savings by 2028-29 across more than 100 federal organizations as a result of the Comprehensive Expenditure Review. For Parks Canada, this translates to projected savings of $144.9 million over three fiscal years starting in 2026-2027, with ongoing annual savings of $75 million thereafter.

We are reviewing these savings to assess what they mean for our organization. Work to implement them will only begin if the Budget has the support of Parliament, so we will share additional information with you once the House of Commons’ debate and vote have taken place.

These savings are an opportunity – as the Clerk has asked – to focus on the government’s priorities, to simplify our internal processes and to show accountability for our advice and decisions.

The Budget also proposes to return the public service to a more sustainable level of 330,000 employees across government by 2028-29. This includes a reduction of 1,000 executive positions over the next two years to ensure public service adjustments include leadership.

To manage reductions to the greatest extent possible through attrition and voluntary departures, Budget 2025 proposes to introduce a voluntary early retirement incentive program, which would allow eligible employees to retire with an immediate pension based on their years of service with no reduction for early retirement.

Where there are impacts on work units or positions in our organization, our goal will be to minimize the impacts on our employees. We will use all the tools at our disposal, including attrition and the workforce adjustment provisions found in Appendix K of the Collective Agreement between Parks Canada and the Public Service Alliance of Canada. For executives, measures are available under the provisions of the Directive on Terms and Conditions of Employment for Executives Annex D - Career Transition.

Finally, Budget 2025 announces the government’s intention to initiate consultations with key stakeholders to account for the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) enhancements and ensure that federal employees continue to receive the same pension benefits, without overcontributing. Importantly, these changes would have no impact on your pension (equal to about 2% of your salary for each year of service). They would result in savings for the government and employees through a decrease in contribution rates. The same adjustment was already made to members of the Parliamentary Pension Plan starting January 1, 2025.

The investments, savings and other measures announced in the Budget 2025 reflect a transformational time for the public service. While we revisit how we work and how we can best serve Canadians, this change will understandably be stressful. If you need assistance, remember that resources such as the Ombuds Office and the Employee and Family Assistance Program (1-800-268-7708 or 1-800-567-5803 for the hearing impaired) are available.

As the Clerk affirmed in his message yesterday, the senior management team and I will continue to act transparently, make decisions quickly, support our people, and be guided by our values of fairness, consistency, and respect for diversity.

Information about these measures has been published on Canada.ca and will continue to be updated in the coming weeks. We commit to sharing additional information as soon as we can.

Ron Hallman

President & CEO

#ParksCanadaProud

Reminder to managers: In keeping with Parks Canada's procedures for communications with employees, managers are responsible for ensuring all team members under their responsibility receive the information intended for them. It is important that you find a means to transmit this message and, if any, the attachment(s) to employees without access to Parks Canada e-mail or the intranet, e.g. by posting it, circulating a paper copy or by any other appropriate means.