Employment and Social Development Canada

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reorganized his front bench on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, in a massive federal cabinet shuffle, he also created a single new job: minister of citizens' services.

In late 2021, Tressa Mitchell was dealing with doctor's appointments for her ailing mother when she got a call from the Canada Revenue Agency seeking information to verify her eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Canada's auditor general says COVID-19 benefits were delivered quickly and helped mitigate economic suffering, but the federal government hasn’t done enough to recover billions of dollars in overpayments.

Canada's auditor general is expected to release two highly anticipated reports on the government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis in 2021, including access to vaccines and pandemic benefits. 

By failing to support coal workers and prepare for a just transition to a low-carbon economy, the federal government is “stealing our futures,” says longtime oil and gas worker Stephen Buhler.

“Extending our quarantine program will provide peace of mind to workers, employers and communities that we are doing everything possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” says B.C.'s Agriculture Minister Lana Popham.

Several Black organizations were denied federal funding through a program designed to help such groups build capacity — after Employment and Social Development Canada told them their leadership was not sufficiently Black.

Employment and Social Development Canada has announced it will conduct a national count of homeless Canadians in March and April. However, policy experts don’t see it as the right move during a pandemic.

Thousands of pages of newly released documents back up the Trudeau government's contention that it was federal public servants who recommended a student service grant program be administered by WE Charity.

Canada's top public servant says federal officials did not probe the WE organization's financial situation or governance structure when doing homework on a deal with the charity to administer a pandemic grant program for student volunteers.

Opposition parties are asking the federal ethics watchdog to widen his probe of Bill Morneau regarding the WE organization as the finance minister continues to face calls for his resignation.

The federal government invited a group of Indigenous elders to Ottawa last spring to seek their guidance on how to address barriers faced by Indigenous federal employees, but the well-intentioned gathering hit an unexpected snag.

The national statistics office is looking at changes to the federally adopted poverty line which, if approved, could mean more people are considered to live below the low-income threshold.

The federal system that handles old age security payments will be as old as the seniors it serves by the time it is replaced near the end of the decade, but even now it illustrates the kinds of challenges officials face when trying to bring government services into the digital age.

A new report says some of the more than one million Canadian workers who could lose their jobs to machines could fill growing gaps in the nation's health-care system with the right training now.