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