Thousands Pink-Slipped While Billions Head to Kyiv
Cutting Tens of Thousands of Federal Jobs at Home While Sending Billions to Ukraine – Priorities, Eh?
Come on, Canada – we all know the federal bureaucracy got way too big. It ballooned during COVID to a peak of about 368,000 positions in 2023-24, and honestly, who thinks every single one of those roles was mission-critical? So when PM Mark Carney’s crew starts slashing roughly 40,000 jobs overall, including another 28,000 targeted over the next four years (with 1,000 executives in the crosshairs), a part of you nods along. “Good riddance to the bloat,” right? Unions are reporting nearly 10,000 employees hit with layoff notices in a single week recently, plus over 2,000 in just three days. Departments across the board—30 of them—are issuing warnings: StatsCan eyeing 850 cuts, Shared Services hit hard, even Global Affairs looking at 13% reductions. It’s messy, people are scrambling for buyouts or job swaps, but if we’re serious about efficiency, ditching excess paper-pushers makes sense.
The irony hits like a freight train, though, when you look at where the money’s really going: straight to Ukraine’s government, which can’t seem to stop tripping over its own corruption scandals. Canada’s total aid since 2022? Now at around $24.5 billion after the latest $2.5 billion economic package pledged in late 2025/early 2026. Military support alone tops $6.5 billion (committed through 2029), humanitarian aid sits at $396.85 million, and add in loan guarantees, debt suspensions (like up to $1.5 billion in 2025-26), and other boosts—it’s a steady stream of taxpayer dollars.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s leadership is mired in fresh messes: a massive $100 million energy sector kickback scheme exposed in late 2025, top aides resigning amid anti-corruption probes, dozens of lawmakers facing charges, and scandals reaching into Zelenskyy’s inner circle. Western allies, including Canada, keep pouring in funds while Kyiv promises reforms that never fully stick. Officials here say they’re helping with oversight, but really? If domestic cuts are needed to “save billions” and fix services, why not redirect even a sliver of that $24.5 billion back home first?
Supporting Ukraine? Propping up a regime dogged by corruption while laying off thousands of Canadian public servants feels like wildly misplaced priorities. Trim the unnecessary bureaucracy? Absolutely. But don’t act broke at home while playing endless sugar daddy abroad to a system that’s anything but clean. Canadians deserve better than this selective austerity. Fix the home front, the best international policy is the domestic policy.
