Nearly Half of Canadians Want the Federal Bureaucracy Reduced: Survey

People walk past Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Nearly half of Canadians are in favour of reducing government bureaucracy, a sentiment that coincides with a more than 40 percent rise in the federal workforce since 2015, a recent survey suggests.

Polling by Leger commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) found a significant portion of respondents say they are concerned about the growing size of the federal bureaucracy. Forty-seven percent favour reducing the number of federal employees, 29 percent prefer maintaining the current number, seven percent want an increase, and 17 percent are unsure, according to the results.

“The poll shows taxpayers know they’re paying for too many federal paper pushers and want Ottawa to shrink the bureaucracy,” said CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano in a press release. “Canadians can’t afford to keep bankrolling a bloated federal bureaucracy.”

Data from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat shows the federal public service had roughly 283,000 employees in 2010, which decreased to around 257,000 by 2015. Since then the number has steadily increased, reaching 367,772 this year.

Costs

Terrazzano said that with the growing number of bureaucrats, Canadians are paying significantly more, including for the pay raises and bonuses given to federal employees. Government payroll information obtained by the CTF showed that more than one-third of federal employees earn six-figure salaries, amounting to $13.9 billion last year.

The federal government has given out more than one million pay raises to bureaucrats over the past four years, according to records obtained by the CTF.

The Parliamentary Budget Office reported in March 2023 that federal departments meet less than 50 percent of their performance targets annually.

While addressing questions from MPs about the government payroll, Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux attributed the increase in part to excessive layers of bureaucracy.

“It’s not uncommon for departments to have five levels of executives, an associate deputy minister or more, and a deputy minister,” Giroux said while testifying at a March 18 meeting of the House government operations committee.

“It leads to a situation where an employee can have seven levels of management above them.”

The average pay for full-time federal employees, including salary, pensions, and other benefits, was $125,300 for the 2021–22 fiscal year, according to a PBO report. In comparison, the average salary for full-time workers across Canada in 2021 was less than $68,000, according to Statistics Canada.

Cutting Public Services

Treasury Board Secretariat spokesperson Rola Salem defended the size of public service, noting that the growth of the federal public service has slowed down to 2.9 percent in 2023-24, compared to an average of 5.5 percent per year from 2017 to 2023.

“In addition, over the past decade, the percentage of government spending dedicated to personnel costs has generally remained the same. This is about smarter government, not smaller government, and the Government of Canada will continue to prioritize high-quality service delivery to Canadians,” Salem said in an emailed statement.

Salem also highlighted the government’s commitment to reduce the number of public service jobs by about 5,000 over the next four years through natural attrition, as detailed in Budget 2024. This reduction in bureaucracy is expected to save $4.2 billion over four years.

Treasury Board President Anita Anand, who oversees much of the public service management, said in April that all ministers, not just those from the largest departments, were expected to join the cost-cutting plan.

Anand also highlighted the need for a “nuanced” approach to reducing the public service to ensure that some of its tech worker positions are preserved.