Nearly Half of Canadians Want to Reduce Federal Bureaucracy: Survey

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.

A poll of 1,601 adult Canadians by Leger 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 survey.

Ottawa has added nearly 109,000 new federal government employees, representing a 42 percent increase since 2015, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) said in an Aug. 6 press release.

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

Costs

CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano noted in the release 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.

Despite the increase in staff and pay, 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 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

The number of public service jobs is expected to drop by about 5,000 over the next four years from the current 368,000 positions due to natural attrition, according to 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.