Taxpayer group warns Carney cemented Trudeau-era government bloat

Don’t be fooled by the Carney government’s talk of cutting costs. A new report warns that the administration has actually cemented the Trudeau-era’s bloated federal spending.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Don’t be fooled by the Carney government’s talk of cutting costs. A new report from a taxpayer watchdog group warns that the administration has actually cemented the Trudeau-era’s bloated federal spending, saddling Canadians with a bigger bureaucracy than ever.

The cost of Ottawa’s bureaucracy has soared by 80 per cent over the past decade, with the average federal employee making $148,000 annually, not including bonuses, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“The federal government needs to put its bloated bureaucracy on a diet,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano on Monday. “It’s natural to gain a little weight over the holidays, but the federal bureaucracy has been stuffing itself with more tax dollars for years.”

According to the report, Public Accounts show that taxpayers were billed $71.4 billion in 2024-25 to cover the cost of Canada’s federal bureaucracy, a $6 billion increase from the previous year.

“The federal bureaucracy cost taxpayers $39.6 billion in 2015-16, according to the Public Accounts. That means the cost of the federal bureaucracy increased 80 per cent over the last 10 years,” reads the report.

“Canadian taxpayers are paying about $20 billion more per year for the federal bureaucracy now than they were in 2015, even after adjusting for inflation. The figure below illustrates this large increase in the cost of the federal bureaucracy.

The major jump is partly due to Ottawa adding 99,000 bureaucrats over the last 10 years. Of those, 146,786 now earn a six-figure salary, representing nearly 40 per cent of the bureaucracy.

The increase in federal bureaucrats also grew nearly double the rates of Canada’s population growth and total employment over the same period.

Ottawa’s bureaucracy grew by 38 per cent over those 10 years, compared to population growth of 16 per cent and employment growth of 17 per cent.

Departments that saw the largest growth were Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (375 per cent), Women and Gender Equality Canada (334 per cent) and the RCMP External Review Committee (229 per cent).

Meanwhile, Elections Canada grew by 173 per cent, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada by 158 per cent, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada by 154 per cent.

“Employment and Social Development Canada added the greatest number of employees since 2016. The department added 16,842 employees since 2016 – a 75 per cent increase,” reads the report. “The Canada Revenue Agency added the second greatest number of employees over the decade. The CRA added 13,015 employees since 2016 – a 33 per cent increase.”

The CTF report also criticizes the Carney government’s latest Budget 2025’s “weak plan” to reduce labour costs.

“Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent budget doesn’t go nearly far enough to make the bureaucracy affordable for taxpayers, it entrenches the government’s decade-long bureaucrat hiring spree,” Terrazzano said. “Carney must significantly cut the size and cost of government bureaucracy to fix federal finances.”

While Carney has pledged to reduce the number of federal employees to the headcount it was at the end of 2021, the CTF notes that this timeline still reflects record-high spending.

“Even if Carney cuts the total number of bureaucrats by 10 per cent, but doesn’t stop increases to salaries and perks, the federal bureaucracy will cost taxpayers about $67 billion in 2028. That means Carney’s bureaucracy in 2028 will cost taxpayers about $3 billion more than Trudeau’s bureaucracy in 2022, after adjusting for inflation,” reads the report.

“A key taxpayer takeaway from Carney’s budget is that the federal government is not taking meaningful action to reduce the size and cost of its bureaucracy. Rather, the government is entrenching Trudeau’s bureaucrat hiring spree.”