Comprehensive Expenditure Review

Dear colleagues,

The Government of Canada has launched a Comprehensive Expenditure Review (CER) to ensure that spending is responsible, cost-effective, and delivers results for Canadians.

Departments and Agencies are being asked to bring forward ambitious savings proposals that reduce day-to-day government operating costs by targeting programs and activities that are underperforming, not core to the federal mandate, duplicative, or misaligned with government priorities.

The CER requires most departments to develop savings proposals which, over 3 years, will ramp to 15% of our total budget minus the asset budget which is drawn from planned spending in the 2025-26 Main Estimates and unrealized savings under the Responsible Government Spending initiative announced in Budget 2024. For Parks Canada, this will require difficult decisions that will have an impact on team members and on our ability to serve Canadians.

We will continue to rely on an internal executive-level team, representing all areas of Parks Canada, to lead the development of proposals that promote a sustainable organization. These proposals will then be considered by our Executive Management Committee, myself, and the Minister and Cabinet. We will be strategically identifying savings opportunities across all parts of the organization with the goal of ensuring that our work is aligned with government priorities and focused on our core mandate.

Approved government-wide savings will be presented to Parliament in the 2026-27 Main Estimates, which must be tabled by March 1, 2026. Until this time, as deliberations and decision-making are subject to Cabinet confidence, there will be limits to the information we can share. We will continue to provide information that we are able to share with team members in a timely fashion. As well, we will be working with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, on behalf of unionized team members to ensure the smooth flow of information.

We know that this situation will be stressful. If you need support, please speak with your supervisor, contact the Ombuds Office, or reach out to the Employee Assistance Program at 1-800-268-7708 (or 1-800-567-5803 for the hearing impaired). And if you see a colleague who may be struggling, please be kind and understanding.

We will do everything possible to help Parks Canada navigate this situation as smoothly as possible. 

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.