There’s a giant, bloated elephant in the federal government. The civil service keeps growing and multiplying and the runaway costs associated with it are alarming.
The National Post reported this week that the feds added another 10,525 employees last year, bringing the size of the public service to 367,772. While that increase is down from 21,290 additions in the previous fiscal year, it’s unacceptable at a time when the government pays lip service to restraint.
Last November, Treasury Board President Anita Anand pledged to get runaway government spending under control.
“In this economic time in our country, as Canadian households across the land are examining their own pocketbooks, the Government of Canada is no different,” the Ottawa Citizen quoted Anand as saying.
“We have to be prudent with taxpayer dollars and that is exactly what my role is as president of the Treasury Board — to manage the purse prudently,” she said.
Earlier this year, parliamentary budget officer (PBO) Yves Giroux reported the federal government payroll had skyrocketed by more than $27 billion since 2015, when Justin Trudeau became prime minister, to a record high of $67.4 billion in 2022-23. In the 2016-17 fiscal year, that number was $40.2 billion.
Anand announced the federal government will cut $500 million from spending. Ironically, the defence department took the biggest hit. At a time when NATO allies are calling us out for failing to meet our funding target of 2% of Gross Domestic Product, the feds chose to take the biggest cut — $211 million, or 42% — from our military. That makes you wonder about this government’s priorities.
As the civil service grows, the feds are on track to spend a record $21.6 billion on outside consultants, according to the PBO. That’s up from the $18.6 billion it spent on consultants in 2022-23 — up from $17.5 billion in 2021-22 and the $14.7 billion the year before.
The size of government has swelled by 42% since 2015, while our population has grown by 14%.
This is unsustainable. The Trudeau government says one thing and does the opposite. The numbers don’t lie. Interest rates are sky-high. The carbon tax adds to the cost of everything and average folk are burdened by the weight of a fat cat bureaucracy that’s spinning out of control.