OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to rein in its labour costs following today’s Parliamentary Budget Officer report showing large increases in recent years. 

“The Trudeau government needs to take some air out of its ballooning bureaucracy,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the CTF. “Struggling Canadian taxpayers can’t afford more bureaucrats with bigger salaries.”

The federal government’s labour costs are expected to reach “almost $55 billion this year – or about $130,000 per full-time employee,” according to the PBO. Compensation per employee increased by an average of four per cent each year over the past seven years. 

Between 2015 and 2020, the number of federal employees grew by about 49,000 employees, from 342,000 to 391,000 employees. 

“Based on the government’s spending plans, PBO projects that over the next five years, the number of FTEs will reach over 409,000 by 2026-27,” according to the report. “By that time, PBO projects personnel expenditures to reach $59.1 billion.”

“It’s not fair to ask the Canadians who lost their job or took a pay cut during the pandemic to pay higher taxes so the federal government can add thousands of bureaucrats with bigger salaries,” said Terrazzano.