Weekly Summary
Jul 21 – Jul 27, 2025
Memorial University announced major budget cuts on July 25, 2025, including 20 staff layoffs and the closure of several departments to address a $20 million budget shortfall. The university is also reducing contract teaching positions through non-renewal of contracts rather than mass layoffs, with $3.9 million allocated to fund up to 363 additional course sections during the transition.
A report predicts that the number of federal public service jobs in Canada could drop by almost 60,000. The article references Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne but does not provide details on implementation timeline or specific reasons for the predicted job losses.
OMERS Ventures, the VC arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, laid off several employees from its U.S. investment team, including senior managing partner Michael Yang, as part of a strategic shift to refocus on Canadian investments. The layoffs reduced the firm's headcount from 19 employees in June to 12 total, with the U.S.-based investment team reduced from two-thirds to half of the firm's investment staff.
Metrolinx laid off more than 40 customer service employees from the GO Contact Centre during the week of July 7, 2025, transferring their functions to HGS Canada, a company headquartered in India. The layoffs occurred days before Metrolinx apologized for using AI in a social media response to customer concerns following a Coldplay concert at Rogers Stadium.
Arbec Forest Products announced a six-week shutdown of its OSB mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick in September, with 29 permanent job eliminations out of 113 affected employees. The closure is due to a market-related inventory adjustment, with the company citing tariff impacts on US exports as the reason for the production pause.