One of Canada's biggest unions warns they're taking their fight across Canada in preparation for cutbacks as the federal government tries to balance the budget.

John Gordon, the head of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said his members are going to go to communities to explain what losing services could mean.

"We're going to point out that they're making cuts to those programs. We're also going to talk to the other politicians. We're going to talk to the people who live in those communities," he said.

A number of federal officials, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Treasury Board President Tony Clement have promised not to cut health and education transfers to the provinces.

Clement, the minister with authority over the public service, has said he believes he can find many of the savings the government needs through attrition as civil servants retire or take jobs in the private sector.

Late Thursday, Harper's director of communications Dimitri Soudas reiterated the need for the government to decrease its spending.

"Our government received a strong mandate from Canadians to cut the fat, waste and inefficiencies," Soudas wrote in a comment to CBC. "This is about respect for taxpayers' dollars."

Clement's Liberal treasury board critic, Ontario MP John McCallum, used a press release Thursday to call on the government to come clean about what its spending plans are, including whether or not new user fees are on the way.

"Tony Clement is trying to reassure Canadians that his $4 billion in cuts will be 'painless,'" McCallum's statement read. "These cuts are happening because the Conservatives mismanaged the budget even before the recession started and dug Canada into a massive fiscal hole."

While he admits it's still early in the process, Gordon says it's clear some services will have to be cut. The Conservatives say they want to find $4 billion a year in savings to help balance the budget by 2014.

"They're saying they can get 11,000 people per year through attrition. We're saying there's going to have to be some cuts because some of the programs, people won't be leaving, so they're going to have to find and adjust them," Gordon said, warning he doesn't believe Canadians' health and safety won't be affected.

"They've already announced the cut to search and rescue in Newfoundland and Labrador. If search and rescue in the coastlines of Newfoundland is not something to do with health and safety, what is?"

The government has already announced several rounds of layoffs based on last year's program review.