OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal government to reject the unaffordable and unsustainable demands from the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

“Canadians don’t feel sorry for the privileged bureaucrats on strike who took pay raises during the pandemic and never worry about losing their job,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the CTF. “These bureaucrats are living a privileged life and now they want to take billions more from taxpayers who are worried about making their mortgage payments and struggling to afford gas and groceries.”

PSAC demanded up to 47 per cent compensation increases over three years, according to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. That would cost taxpayers $9.3 billion.

A total of 312,825 federal employees received at least one pay raise during the pandemic. That means more than 90 per cent of federal employees received a raise during the pandemic. The federal government also paid out $559 million in bonuses since 2020.

Compensation for each full-time federal employee is $125,300 on average when pay, pension and other benefits are added up, according the Parliamentary Budget Officer. 

“[Federal] personnel spending over the past two years increased by 30.9 per cent,” according to the PBO. “The public service expanded by 31,227 full-time equivalents.”

“Taxpayers paid for hundreds of thousands of pay raises, hundreds of millions in bonuses and tens of thousands of new employees over the last few years and now bureaucrats are demanding billions more,” Terrazzano said. “Enough is enough. The government must reject PSAC’s unaffordable, unsustainable and out of touch demands.”

The non-wage benefits PSAC has demanded include:

• A special shift premium whenever members work past 4 p.m.;
• Taxpayer-funded contributions to the PSAC’s Social Justice Fund, which engages in “advocacy for progressive public policy,” according to the union’s website;
• An education fund for laid-off members of up to $17,000;
• Increased paid leave for family related responsibilities from 37.5 hours to 75 hours annually; and,
• Accrual of four weeks of automatic vacation leave after four years of service, rather than after seven years of service.