OTTAWA, ON: Statistics Canada’s employment numbers released today show Canadians working outside government have struggled while the bureaucracy continues to grow. 

“There’s been a tale of two pandemics in Canada: one full of private sector pain, the other full of politicians and bureaucrat financial gain,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director with the CTF. “It’s not fair to make struggling taxpayers pay for more bureaucrats and bigger bureaucrat salaries during the pandemic.”

Statistics Canada’s job report shows the burden of the pandemic downturn has been felt disproportionately by workers outside of government. 

There’s been 257,400 government jobs added during the pandemic, including an extra 107,700 “public administration” employees added since February 2020. 

There are 256,500 fewer jobs outside of government (private sector plus self-employed) than pre-pandemic. 

There were 312,825 federal government employees who received at least one pay raise during the pandemic, according to an access to information request obtained by the CTF. Members of Parliament received two pay raises during the pandemic, ranging from an extra $6,900 for a backbench MP to an extra $13,800 for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

There have been no pay cuts for employees in the federal government, provincial governments or major city governments during the pandemic, according to research from Secondstreet.org. 

“Not only do taxpayers have to pay for more bureaucrats, we’re also on the hook for government pay raises during the pandemic and that’s not fair,” said Terrazzano.