• ​The government of Quebec is estimating it will have 546,939 employees in March 2022
• In the last election, the Coalition avenir Québec pledged to eliminate 5,000 government jobs
• Quebec will spend $53 billion compensating bureaucrats in 2021-22

MONTRÉAL, QC – The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing the Legault government for growing the size of the government apparatus, despite promising to shrink it during the last election.

“For every bureaucratic job Premier François Legault promised to cut during the campaign, he created an extra nine,” said CTF Quebec Director Renaud Brossard. “In only three budgets, the man who vowed to fight bureaucracy managed to grow it by nearly 10 per cent instead.”

According to the Treasury Board, the government of Quebec currently has 537,389 employees. It plans to hire an extra 9,550, on net, by March 2022, bringing the total to 546,939 employees.

Still according to the Treasury Board, the government had 499,074 employees in March 2018, when Legault tabled his first budget.

This represents an increase of 47,865 bureaucrats over three budgets.

In the last election, the Coalition avenir Québec pledged to eliminate 5,000 jobs in government.

Legault said at the time: “Currently, there are departments where there are three or four layers of supervisors supervising other supervisors. There is really a need to reduce the bureaucracy.”

“When Legault complained there were lots of layers of supervisors supervising other supervisors, we didn’t think he wanted to add a few more,” said Brossard. “The Legault government must put the stop to the expansion of the bureaucracy and respect its election promise.”

Of the new positions created thus far, nearly half are for office work or manager positions.

Compensation for government bureaucrats will cost taxpayers more than $53 billion this year.