Now signals of cuts across departments seem, if anything, inevitable. There are overt promises to trim back the public service to pay for income tax cuts as frontrunners Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre vie for voters' trust at a time of economic insecurity.

Nate Prier, the president of CAPE, argues that now is not the time for cuts, particularly for IRCC, pointing to geopolitical instability and the hardline immigration policies of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. He questions whether Canada is ready to handle an influx of claimants after IRCC workers survive the wave of cuts to their teams and salaries.

“When America starts vomiting up its refugees, like it is right now, when they drive more wars to create more refugees, when we need to delink from the American economy, and we’re going to need skilled workers from around the world to help build the next chapter for Canada, that is a terrible time to start gutting the federal public sector, and especially people that you’ve already trained,” Prier said.