The Department of Employment says it needs to hire outside consultants to review its own student jobs program, even though the department already has 34,410 employees on the payroll.In a new contract notice, managers said they require a private firm to conduct nine case studies on the Student Work Placement Program. The consultants will interview employers and funding recipients to gauge how the program is performing. No budget for the seven-month deal was disclosed.The department offered no explanation why its own managers could not do the work. .Last year, it admitted it tripled consultant spending to $311.8 million — 6% of its total budget — because staff were “not available” or lacked the right skills.“Does hiring consultants amount to using replacement workers instead of public servants?” one internal briefing note asked. Officials claimed consultants allow for “flexible and rapid deployment of resources.”The reliance on outside help has exploded across government. .The federal procurement ombudsman estimates Ottawa spends $25 billion a year on consultants, even as the public service ballooned from 195,565 core employees in 2016 to 254,309 today.The Parliamentary Budget Office has flagged “significant growth” in management consulting costs year after year.Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to rein in the billions, saying on July 10 he would “spend less” and balance the operational budget within three years. But so far, departments keep outsourcing work taxpayers already pay tens of thousands of public servants to do.
