How Ottawa is impacted by the 2025 federal budget

The draft federal budget has been tabled at Parliament Hill, and it includes money for an Orléans recreation centre. 

While no dollar figure has been announced, the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex will receive funding through the new Building Communities Strong Fund, a new infrastructure fund for local and regional public infrastructure projects.

The current facility in Orléans features a six-lane swimming pool with diving boards and a therapeutic pool, as well as the Elizabeth Manley Figure Skating Arena and the Roger Senecal Arena. During last year's city budget, $1.5 million was allocated to improve the arena and pool. 

Also in the east end, the 2025 budget commits to exploring options for the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre, the country’s only full-service compound semiconductor wafer facility, located on Montreal Road. 

The goal is to “attract private capital, scale its operations, and serve as a platform for Canadian innovation and new photonic applications, including in the face of the rise of AI and related computer infrastructure.”

What was not included was any sort of transit funding for the capital. 

The City has been pleading for support from upper levels of government to help deal with a projected $46.6 million OC Transpo deficit. 

With no additional cash flowing, the City is considering a transit levy increase of upwards of 15 per cent and up to a 7.5 per cent fare increase, which could be tabled when the City budget is presented to council on Nov. 12. 

Cuts to the federal public service 

To find $60 billion in savings over the next five years, the federal government is planning to cut another 28,000 positions from the federal public service. 

The proposed budget says most cuts will come through early retirement packages, attrition, and some job cuts. It’s expected to significantly impact the Ottawa region where half the country's federal public service jobs are located.

“These reductions will continue the trend towards a more sustainable public service size of roughly 330,000 by 2028-29 — a decline of about 40,000 or 10 per cent from the 2023-24 peak,” Budget 2025 said. “Attrition has, and will continue to be, a driver. The government understands that transitions can be difficult and is committed to minimizing hardship for federal employees, while also protecting diversity in the public service workforce and ensuring a strong, younger generation of public servants.”

The government will introduce a voluntary Early Retirement Incentive program, giving public servants the opportunity to leave the workforce ahead of schedule. Eligible participants include Group 1 employees aged 50 and older, and Group 2 employees aged 55 and older, provided they have at least 10 years of service, including a minimum of two years of pensionable service under the plan.

Mayor Sutcliffe called the news “unsettling.” 

“I think the sooner the government has more details on exactly how those reductions will be carried out, who will be affected, what departments, which individual employees, and what the plan is to support those people through the transition, how many of them will be through attrition, early retirement, those kinds of things … the better,” he told reporters at City Hall on Tuesday. 

For now, it's unclear which department will be most impacted, but the City of Ottawa is expected to lose about 14,000 full-time positions between 2024 and 2028, says one local expert.

More cuts

Funding at many federal agencies is also being cut. Canadian Heritage, which organizes events such as Winterlude and the Canada Day festivities at LeBreton Flats, will need to find $363 million in savings over a five-year period. 

It plans to “refocus its cultural programming to meet the evolving needs of recipients and ensure program efficiencies,” the budget read. 

Over the next five years, the Canadian Museum of History will also face a $22.8 million budget cut, Library and Archives Canada will be tasked with identifying $92 million in savings, and the National Capital Commission will need to reduce its expenditures by $60 million.