Executive compensation within the federal government has soared by over half-a-billion dollars since 2015, raising eyebrows and concerns about the allocation of public funds, as revealed by access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF).From 2015 to 2022, executive compensation across federal departments and agencies saw an increase from $1.38 billion to $1.95 billion, marking a 41% surge. Meanwhile, the number of federal executives grew from 7,138 to 9,371, a 31% expansion of the government's c-suite.Inflation during the same period, as per Statistics Canada data, rose by 19.4%, further intensifying concerns about the financial impact of this substantial increase in executive pay. The average annual compensation for federal executives also witnessed an uptick, climbing from $193,600 to $208,480.Franco Terrazzano, CTF federal director, expressed dismay at the apparent disconnect between the rising executive pay and the financial challenges faced by taxpayers."Taxpayers need help with the rising cost of living, not higher taxes to pay for more highly-paid paper-pushers," Terrazzano stated, highlighting the pressing concerns of Canadians grappling with essential expenses.A detailed breakdown provided by the CTF revealed a consistent upward trajectory in federal executive compensation over the years:.This surge in executive pay follows years of underwhelming performance across federal departments. In the 2022/23 fiscal year, federal departments achieved only 50% of their performance targets, as reported by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. A 2023 report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer highlighted less than 50% of performance targets were consistently met each year from 2018 to 2021.The CTF also revealed approximately 90% of federal executives receive an annual bonus, with a total bonus payout of $202 million in 2022. The average bonus among executives was $18,252, contributing to a total bonus cost of $1.3 billion since 2015. The annual cost to taxpayers of federal bonuses has risen by 46% during this period.In 2022, the number of federal bureaucrats earning a six-figure salary reached 102,761, more than doubling since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office in 2015 when 43,424 bureaucrats received a six-figure salary. The federal bureaucracy has expanded by about 40% under the Trudeau government, with over 98,000 new hires."Trudeau needs to take air out of the ballooning bureaucracy, and he should start by reining in the c-suite," said Terrazzanno.
