The cost of Ottawa’s federal bureaucracy has exploded over the past decade, ballooning by 80% as governments piled on nearly 100,000 new public servants, according to a new report from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.The report argues the federal government has allowed its workforce and compensation costs to spiral, leaving taxpayers on the hook for a bureaucracy the group describes as bloated and increasingly unaffordable.“The federal government needs to put its bloated bureaucracy on a diet,” said Franco Terrazzano, the federation’s federal director. “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, Ottawa added 99,000 bureaucrats over the past 10 years while approving $1.5 billion in bonuses since 2015. Average compensation for a full-time federal employee now sits at $148,000, with 146,786 workers earning six-figure salaries — nearly 40% of the entire federal workforce..The federation also takes aim at Budget 2025, arguing it fails to meaningfully rein in labour costs and instead locks in the effects of a decade-long hiring spree. Rather than shrinking the bureaucracy, the report says the budget entrenches previous expansion and delays any serious effort to control spending.Public opinion appears to support a smaller federal footprint. A Leger poll cited in the report found that 54% of Canadians want the federal government to reduce the size and cost of its bureaucracy. .The poll also found that half of Canadians believe federal services have worsened since 2016, despite the massive growth in staffing and spending.“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.”
