PACP – IRCC Consultants – December 2, 2025

Key Messages

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has historically used consultants to fill specialized gaps and meet surge demands, however, over time, this reliance grew beyond its intended scope.
• In January 2024, we decided to take a forceful approach to reduce this historical reliance on consultants and a three-year consultant reduction strategy was created.
• The strategy is on track and progressing as planned. Since January 2024, 127 consultants have been released—42% of our overall reduction target of 301 by April 2028.
• Our approach balances cost reduction with operational continuity. We are reducing consultants while ensuring delivery and service stability through targeted recruitment, knowledge transfer, and system decommissioning.
• New terms and full-time employees are being onboarded to replace consultants and build internal capacity. We are also actively identifying internal talent that can be upskilled to fill the gaps. This is not a one to one strategy: we are letting go more consultants than hiring new employees (full time equivalent [FTE] replacement rate is 55%). This is possible as we decommission older technologies.
  • 36 FTE replacements this year, ensuring critical expertise is retained in-house.

Consultant Reduction Strategy

Overview

• IRCC’s Consultant Reduction Strategy was launched in early 2024 to address the Department’s reliance on external consultants, particularly within the IT sector.
• The strategy is guided by three core pillars:
  • Knowledge Transfer & Capacity Building
  • Recruitment & Onboarding of New Employees
  • Decommissioning Portals and Streamlining Services
• The overall target is to let go is 301 consultants by April 2028, while maintaining operations of key IRCC processing systems and the delivery of key modernization initiatives.
  • We began with 351 consultants and now have 224 consultants (reduction of 127). Our goal is to reach a target of about 50 consultants by the end of this initiative (April 2028).
  • IRCC will not, however, completely eliminate the usage of consultants. Some specialized expertise or surge capacity will always require their use.

Progress to Date

• 127 consultants have been let go since January 2024 (42% of the total target).
• 25 consultant reductions were achieved in Q2 2025–2026, on track toward the 79 planned reductions for this fiscal year.
• Reductions have primarily focused on consultants with shorter tenures (0–5 years), aligning with our capacity-building and knowledge transfer goals. By investing in in-house training and upskilling, we are strengthening existing staff, which enables us to release some consultants without FTE replacements while building long-term internal capability.
• FTE recruitment and onboarding are progressing:
  • 36 staffing actions are planned for 2025–2026.
  • 16 are already completed, with another 12 in progress.
  • New hires are replacing consultants with specialized expertise; knowledge transfer usually takes 3–6 months prior to release.
  • Some consultants are able to be replaced through the upskilling of existing resources.

Current Context

• IRCC, like many IT organizations, has historically relied on consultants to fill specialized gaps and meet surge demands, however, this practice expanded over time with the extent of this reliance increasing more than anticipated.
• With current fiscal constraints and workforce adjustment measures, transitioning work to employees is more complex but remains essential.
• A small number of consultants (13–16% of the original number of consultants, depending on crisis and specialized needs) will be retained beyond the three-year mark to maintain expertise in critical areas, particularly in temporary or project-based environments such as Digital Platform Modernization, Phase 3 (DPM3).

Looking Ahead

• The focus for the remainder of 2025–2026 is to advance FTE recruitment and continue phased consultant releases. The priority will be on long-tenured consultants (10+ years), who work in a supporting function/workforce augmentation role.
• The strategy remains on track for full implementation by April 2028. However, the Department is currently assessing what impacts the Comprehensive Expenditure Review could have.
• Contingency measures are in place to maintain flexibility in responding to unforeseen operational needs.
• IRCC continues to work on the development and enhancement of the training and upskilling components for IT Classifications; including the plan to conduct a workforce skillset inventory within the Digital Strategy, Services and Innovation sector for effective resource use and management.
• The Department has kept unions informed of its strategy and links to employee retention and upskilling.

Improvements for use of Consultant Firms

• IRCC tightly monitors cyber behaviors (including consultants’) to detect any inappropriate use of tools, IRCC devices or networks, or any other possible malfeasances as soon as possible. As a result of the enhanced cyber processes, we have already identified and taken action for cases justifying consultant dismissal (five cases to date). We will continue to monitor and log these types of behaviors.
• The Department also maintains communications with Public Services and Procurement Canada to share problematic cases.
• We will be developing guidance for IRCC’s management to enable the Department to make more informed decisions when using consultant(s) based on standardized processes, analyses, and assessments.
• A “business owner” training on procurement was launched via IRCC’s internal learning platform in Q1 2025/2026. It highlights key considerations when procuring professional services.
• IRCC included considerations for internal staff and use of IT Digital Talent pools before proceeding with a professional service procurement as part of the revamped procurement intake process for next fiscal year.
• The Department reviews the scope of each new project to assess whether consulting services are required, and ensures that, if external resources are needed, tangible deliverables and realistic timelines are clearly defined.

Why IRCC Continues to Use Some Consultants

• Certain specialized technical skills are not yet available internally.
• Consultants are used selectively for temporary expertise when hiring an employee would not make sense in the long term.
• Consultants are needed for surge demand: IRCC has faced and will face international crises requiring the Department to quickly adjust its systems to meet surge processing.

Whether Service Delivery is at Risk

• No, service delivery is not at risk. Reductions are carefully sequenced with recruitment and knowledge transfer to maintain operational stability.

The Long-Term Plan

• The goal is to reduce consultant reliance to 13–16% within three to four years in the Chief Information Officer sector, of the starting total of consultants (351), while strengthening in-house capabilities for the future.
• Maintaining a small, targeted use of consultants is a prudent and common practice across both government and private sector for the following reasons:
  • Temporary needs: consultants are used for time-limited projects where long-term employment is not practical or time sensitive (ex: the DPM3 project).
  • Surge capacity: in urgencies and to respond quickly to unplanned demands, consultants provide the flexibility to scale up and down quickly without disrupting core operations.
  • Knowledge transfer and upskilling: some consultants are hired and retained temporarily to support ongoing knowledge transfer and upskilling of FTEs.
  • Specialized expertise: certain technical skill sets are difficult to recruit FTEs, either because the skills are emerging or because the technology is outdated. Consultants provide a way to bridge the gap.