Canadian taxpayers spent $67.4 billion on federal employee salaries and benefits in 2023, a $40.2 billion increase since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office. Budget Officer Yves Giroux, who confirmed the numbers Thursday, had previously warned of the “worrisome” increase in payroll expenses, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.“Spending on personnel continued to increase in 2023 reaching $67.4 billion,” Giroux wrote in the Supplementary Estimates (C) report, noting a $40.2 billion increase since 2016, a 68% increase. In 2016 there were 340,461 federal employees. In 2023, there were 428,000. The cost of funding federal employees has grown an average of 9% each year under the Trudeau Liberals, the report found. Giroux testified about the rising costs to fund federal employees October 19 at the Commons Government Operations Committee. “Yes, it is worrisome,” said Giroux, explaining there was no evidence Canadians benefited from service improvements that justified extra hiring.“I have noticed a marked increase in the number of public servants since 2016 and a proportional increase in spending that corresponds with the increase in the payroll,” said Giroux. “But we haven’t seen similar improvements when it comes to service.”When asked about the possibility of making cuts, the budget officer replied, “we have not looked at the impact of potential reductions in the public service.”“Where would that be? What would it look like? What would be the impact on public services? It is something we will consider doing,” responded Giroux.Earlier in 2023, Giroux was far more outspoken on the issue. At the February 7, 2023 Senate National Finance Committee Giroux testified the federal government was “broken” and that stern measures were needed, but Cabinet was “not very well equipped” to manage its departments and would submit “self-serving Departmental Results reports” to conceal mediocrity.“There needs to be a crack of the whip, big time,” said Giroux. “There is a system that is broken. The government will ‘invest’ or will spend that many millions to do this and do that… okay, but what will be the result?”“The targets in Departmental Results reports are determined in large part by the public servants responsible for delivering the programs themselves: assistant deputy ministers, approved by deputy ministers, approved by ministers,” said Giroux. “But in my experience ministers are not very well equipped to challenge their own officials.”“We end up in a situation where it is public servants responsible for delivering programs that set their own targets and they usually set the bar not too high so it doesn’t look too easy, but neither too low so it’s fairly easy to achieve most of the time,” he said. “Yet by their own assessment they fail to deliver on many of these. So there is a system that is broken.”
Canadian taxpayers spent $67.4 billion on federal employee salaries and benefits in 2023, a $40.2 billion increase since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office. Budget Officer Yves Giroux, who confirmed the numbers Thursday, had previously warned of the “worrisome” increase in payroll expenses, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.“Spending on personnel continued to increase in 2023 reaching $67.4 billion,” Giroux wrote in the Supplementary Estimates (C) report, noting a $40.2 billion increase since 2016, a 68% increase. In 2016 there were 340,461 federal employees. In 2023, there were 428,000. The cost of funding federal employees has grown an average of 9% each year under the Trudeau Liberals, the report found. Giroux testified about the rising costs to fund federal employees October 19 at the Commons Government Operations Committee. “Yes, it is worrisome,” said Giroux, explaining there was no evidence Canadians benefited from service improvements that justified extra hiring.“I have noticed a marked increase in the number of public servants since 2016 and a proportional increase in spending that corresponds with the increase in the payroll,” said Giroux. “But we haven’t seen similar improvements when it comes to service.”When asked about the possibility of making cuts, the budget officer replied, “we have not looked at the impact of potential reductions in the public service.”“Where would that be? What would it look like? What would be the impact on public services? It is something we will consider doing,” responded Giroux.Earlier in 2023, Giroux was far more outspoken on the issue. At the February 7, 2023 Senate National Finance Committee Giroux testified the federal government was “broken” and that stern measures were needed, but Cabinet was “not very well equipped” to manage its departments and would submit “self-serving Departmental Results reports” to conceal mediocrity.“There needs to be a crack of the whip, big time,” said Giroux. “There is a system that is broken. The government will ‘invest’ or will spend that many millions to do this and do that… okay, but what will be the result?”“The targets in Departmental Results reports are determined in large part by the public servants responsible for delivering the programs themselves: assistant deputy ministers, approved by deputy ministers, approved by ministers,” said Giroux. “But in my experience ministers are not very well equipped to challenge their own officials.”“We end up in a situation where it is public servants responsible for delivering programs that set their own targets and they usually set the bar not too high so it doesn’t look too easy, but neither too low so it’s fairly easy to achieve most of the time,” he said. “Yet by their own assessment they fail to deliver on many of these. So there is a system that is broken.”
