Mzwandile Poncana

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Mzwandile Poncana

Thousands rely on tariff supports as Ottawa plans fewer benefit-processing staff at Service Canada

As the Canada-United States trade war becomes more hostile, and Ottawa promises to support affected Canadian workers with enhanced Employment Insurance and Work-Sharing programs, Employment and Social Development Canada is planning fewer staff to process and pay EI and other benefits. “The frontline workers [at the department] want to provide a much higher quality of service to workers losing their...

Mzwandile Poncana

‘Treated like a child’: Some public servants being graded on in-office attendance

Some federal public servants are being formally assessed on whether they comply with return-to-office requirements, including one case in which an otherwise strong employee received a lower overall performance rating after failing an office-attendance objective. The Hill Times spoke to multiple public servants on condition of anonymity who described office-attendance requirements appearing in formal performance agreements, or affecting how staff...

Mzwandile Poncana

After early retirement incentive deadline passes, Ottawa has no forecast for voluntary share of public-service reductions

More than 10,000 federal public servants applied for Ottawa’s early retirement incentive program before the application window closed July 24, with 7,486 applications approved by deputy heads. But the Treasury Board has no quantifiable forecast for how much the incentive will contribute to the government’s planned workforce reductions, how many reductions will be achieved through voluntary departures overall, or how...

Mzwandile Poncana

‘A disaster’ for access, expert says as cuts push Library and Archives to end proactive declassification work

Library and Archives Canada has ended proactive declassification activities that helped lower the security classification of historical government records, a move access and archival experts say removes one part of an already limited federal system for making older records easier to process and release.