OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation released a report today showing 528,347 federal and provincial government employees received a pay raise during the pandemic, while no government reduced employee pay. 

“We’re not all in this together,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director with the CTF. “We’ve seen a tale of two pandemics: one full of private sector pain and the other full of financial gain for bureaucrats and politicians.”

There were 528,347 federal and provincial government employees that received a pay raise during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, according to freedom of information requests obtained by the CTF. The table at the end of this news release shows the number of employees that received a pay raise in each government.

No provincial or federal governments reduced pay for its employees during the pandemic. 

Members of Parliament have received two pay raises during the pandemic, ranging from an extra $6,900 for backbench MPs to an additional $13,800 for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. MPs are set to give themselves a third pandemic pay raise on April 1, 2022. 

“Many Canadians outside of government took a pay cut, lost their job or business, and it’s not fair to ask them to pay higher taxes so bureaucrats and politicians can collect bigger paycheques,” said Terrazzano. “Politicians and bureaucrats need to help shoulder some of the burden by reversing these pandemic pay hikes.”

You can find the CTF’s pandemic pay raise report here.