OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation released Leger polling showing a plurality of Canadians want to reduce the number of federal government employees. 

“The poll shows taxpayers know they’re paying for too many federal paper pushers and want Ottawa to shrink the bureaucracy,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Canadians can’t afford to keep bankrolling a bloated federal bureaucracy.” 

Since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015, Ottawa added 108,793 new federal government employees – an increase of 42 per cent. 

The Leger poll asked Canadians what they think should happen to the size of the federal bureaucracy. The results of the poll show:

• 47 per cent want to reduce number of federal employees
• 29 per cent want to maintain the number of federal employees
• Seven per cent want to increase the number of federal employees
• 17 per cent don’t know

Among those who are decided on the issue, 56 per cent of Canadians want to reduce the number of federal government employees. 

When breaking the results down by political party vote intentions, the poll shows:

• 71 per cent of Conservative voters want to reduce the number of federal employees
• 51 per cent of Bloc voters want to reduce the number of federal employees
• 42 per cent of Green voters want to reduce the number of federal employees
• 36 per cent of Liberal voters want to reduce the number of federal employees
• 26 per cent of NDP voters want to reduce the number of federal employees

“Taxpayers paid for tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats, more than one million pay raises and hundreds of millions in bonuses in recent years and the government still can’t deliver good services,” Terrazzano said. “Canadians can’t afford to pay higher taxes and the government is up to its eyeballs in debt, so it’s time for Ottawa to take air out of its ballooning bureaucracy.”