OTTAWA—The federal government is chopping jobs faster than expected, axing more than 10,000 positions in the past six months.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement said the quick action on job reductions was spurred by a desire to save money and avoid keeping federal workers in limbo about their future.

“We deliberately tried to fast forward as many decisions as possible to give our employees certainty as soon as possible and also to reach our goals as soon as possible,” Clement said in an interview Friday.

“We are definitely on track and we believe it is absolutely critical to rein in spending at this point, that we have to exercise prudent fiscal management,” he said.

The government is under pressure to eliminate its $26 billion deficit in time for the 2015 election, a timeline Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday is possible.

The spring budget set out the government’s goal to eliminate 19,200 positions within the federal government over three years. But in just six months, the government is halfway to that goal after reducing the workforce by 10,980. Of those, 7,500 have been eliminated through attrition, the treasury board said in a release.

Public Safety, Canada Revenue Agency and Human Resources and Skills Development are the departments in line to take the biggest hit.

Asked whether he worries about the personal toll on federal workers feeling the stress from the reductions, Clement said, “I think what most people want is certainty, they just want to know where they stand.

“It is our obligation as an employer to get on with it as much as possible,” he said.

Clement said the government is making other moves to trim its administrative costs, such cutting travel and using video and telephone conferences instead.

“We are reducing program administration and operating costs,” he said. “We are consolidating a lot of corporate services across departments. We are combining physical space and administrative expertise.”

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