The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat recently published a report on federal public service statistics https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/f0d12b41-54dc-4784-ad2b-83dffed2ab84)  The report raises alarm bells, stating that since Trudeau became Prime Minister in 2015, he has increased the public service by more than 108,000 new bureaucrats. This is a 42% increase in less than a decade. During this period, Canada’s population grew by 14%. This in turn raises questions as to the reason for the huge increase in public servants since it could not be due to the increased needs of the public.

The total annual cost of the bureaucracy is $67 billion. Bonuses paid to federal bureaucrats since Trudeau took office total $11.4 billion. The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), found that these bonuses were paid out even though less than 50% of public servants had met their targets.

Further, according to the PBO, the average civil servant makes an annual salary of $125,000 whereas according to Statistics Canada, the annual salary among all workers in Canada was less than $70,000 in 2023.

 Why has Trudeau Increased the Bureaucracy?

Trudeau has been enthusiastically increasing the bureaucracy for two reasons, which benefit him and his government. The first is that his excessive hiring reduces unemployment statistics which should impress the voters. The second reason is that these new public servants ensure a strong voting bloc for the Liberals in the next election. These government employees will vote Liberal to safeguard their jobs. If a sensible, financially astute prime minister is elected in 2025, who is concerned about the deficit and balancing the budget, he would be likely to downsize the public service to reasonable numbers to cut away this surplus of employees.

 Distribution of Federal Employees – Geography

As alarming as these numbers are, one should not lose sight of an equally problematic trend, in the location of these federal employees.  In Ontario, for example, in 2024 in the non-National Capital Region, federal employees number 50,981 or 13.8% of all civil servants, an increase of 34.7% over 2015.  The National Capital Region accounted for some 155,505 employees or 42.3% of all civil servants in Canada, an increase of 44.9% over 2015.  Quebec, non-National Capital Region, accounted for 39,926 employees or 10.9% of all civil servants in Canada, an increase of 35.9% since 2015.  In 2024, Ontario and Quebec accounted for 67% of the federal work force and are a rich source of voters for the Liberal Party.

Some other regions outside Central Canada however, have also experienced double digit increases in federal employees. Newfoundland and Labrador leads the pack with a 61.5% increase since 2015, with a current total of 7,606 employees, even though the province represents only 2.1% of the population. Notably, this province currently provides the Liberals with 6 MPs out of a possible 7 seats. Even the sparsely populated northern Territories experienced double digit growth in the number of federal employees. These areas also mostly send Liberal MPs to Ottawa.

In short, growth in government employment invariably results in concentrations of federal employees in Liberal areas.  Would any federal employee risk their own job by voting for a political party that was promising fiscal discipline and cost saving by proactively shrinking the size of government? Not likely.

Quite apart from the payroll, the size of the federal bureaucracy raises even further questions:  What are the public servants doing to keep busy?  Bureaucracies are not adept at making timely or efficient decisions.  Too many people, too many useless meetings, too many opportunities to avoid accountability by actually making a decision, all this means little gets done.  Add to the mix, the politics of bureaucracy interlaced with politicians, changing political agendas, and centralized control via the Privy Council Office and Prime Minister’s Office.  It’s amazing anything gets done.

Further, it is noted that the highest increase in public servants occurs among middle and upper management, who have the highest salaries. This occurs especially among Deputy Ministers. It does not bode well for continuity or institutional memory within various government departments when these high salaried individuals keep changing.

 The Taxpayer Pays

At the end of the day, the public sector is made possible by the taxpayer who creates the wealth which the public service readily redistributes.  Under Trudeau’s leadership, the size of government has grown dangerously close to being unsustainable.  For the past nine years, the expansion of the public service by Trudeau secures the Liberal party a reliable voting bloc, but it does not ensure that Canadians receive better services. Desperately needed reform of the federal bureaucracy should start by downsizing Trudeau and the Liberals in the 2025 federal election.