Bureaucrats love to think of themselves as “public servants,” but who is really serving who around here?Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added another 10,525 bureaucrats to the taxpayer payroll last year. Since becoming prime minister, Trudeau has added more than 108,000 new federal bureaucrats. That’s a 42% increase in the federal bureaucracy in less than a decade.Ask yourself, are you getting 42% better services from the federal government? Unless your paycheque comes from taxpayers, the answer is a big fat NO. While Trudeau’s bureaucracy grew by 42%, Canada’s population grew by 14%. That means there would be 72,491 fewer federal paper pushers had Trudeau kept growth in the bureaucracy in line with population growth. It’s not just the size of the bureaucracy that’s ballooning — the cost is too. The total cost of the federal payroll hit $67 billion last year, a record high. That’s a 68% increase over 2016. Trudeau gave federal bureaucrats more than one million pay raises in the last four years alone. Since taking office, Trudeau also rubberstamped about $1.4 billion in taxpayer-funded bonuses to bureaucrats working in federal departments. The bonuses were paid out despite the Parliamentary Budget Officer finding “less than 50% of [performance] targets are consistently met.”Then there’s the bonuses at failing Crown corporations. CBC dished out $15 million in bonuses last year, while their President and CEO Catherine Tait whined about “chronic underfunding” and begged the government for more taxpayer cash. The CBC takes more than $1 billion from taxpayers every year. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation dished out $102 million in bonuses over the last four years, while Canadians couldn’t afford to buy a home. The bonuses rained down, despite the CMHC repeatedly claiming it’s “driven by one goal: housing affordability for all.”The Bank of Canada dished out more than $60 million in bonuses over the last three years, even though it failed to do its one and only job: keep inflation low and around two per cent.The average annual compensation for a full-time federal bureaucrat is $125,300, when pay, pension and perks are accounted for, according to the PBO. There are now more than 110,000 federal bureaucrats taking home a six-figure base salary — an increase of 154% since Trudeau took power. Meanwhile, data from Statistics Canada suggests the average annual salary among all full-time workers in Canada was less than $70,000 in 2023. Here’s why all this matters:First, it’s an issue of fairness. The last few years have spelled hardship for Canadians who don’t work for the government, but do pay the bills. Countless Canadians were sent to the ranks of the unemployed, lost their business and struggled to afford rising rents and costly grocery trips. They’re paying higher taxes so more highly-paid bureaucrats can take bigger paycheques.Second, more than half of the federal government’s day-to-day spending is consumed by the bureaucracy. That means any government that wants to fix the budget dumpster fire must shrink the bureaucracy.Let’s recap: Taxpayers paid for 108,000 new federal bureaucrats. Taxpayers paid for more than one million pay raises over the last four years. Taxpayers paid for more than $1 billion in bonuses. And bureaucrats barely meet even half of their performance targets — targets they set for themselves. It’s clear Trudeau’s bureaucratic bloat isn’t serving taxpayers. It’s time to find a pin and pop Ottawa’s ballooning bureaucracy.Franco Terrazzano is the Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.This is what the Western Standard is up againstThe Trudeau government is funding lies and propaganda by directly subsidizing the mainstream media. They do this to entrench the powerful Eastern, woke and corrupt interests that dominate the political, social and economic institutions in Canada. Federal authorities are constantly trying to censor us and stop us from publishing the stories that they don’t want you to read. Ottawa may weaponize our taxes and police against us, but we’ve got a powerful ally on our side.You. Free men, and free women. We need you to stand with us and become a member of the Western Standard. Here’s what you will get for your membership:Unlimited access to all articles from the Western Standard, Alberta Report, West Coast Standard, and Saskatchewan Standard, with no paywall. Our daily newsletter delivered to your inbox. .Access to exclusive Member-only WS events.Keep the West’s leading independent media voice strong and free.If you can, please support us with a monthly or annual membership. It takes just a moment to set up, and you will be making a big impact on keeping one the last independent media outlets in Canada free from Ottawa’s corrupting influence.
Bureaucrats love to think of themselves as “public servants,” but who is really serving who around here?Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added another 10,525 bureaucrats to the taxpayer payroll last year. Since becoming prime minister, Trudeau has added more than 108,000 new federal bureaucrats. That’s a 42% increase in the federal bureaucracy in less than a decade.Ask yourself, are you getting 42% better services from the federal government? Unless your paycheque comes from taxpayers, the answer is a big fat NO. While Trudeau’s bureaucracy grew by 42%, Canada’s population grew by 14%. That means there would be 72,491 fewer federal paper pushers had Trudeau kept growth in the bureaucracy in line with population growth. It’s not just the size of the bureaucracy that’s ballooning — the cost is too. The total cost of the federal payroll hit $67 billion last year, a record high. That’s a 68% increase over 2016. Trudeau gave federal bureaucrats more than one million pay raises in the last four years alone. Since taking office, Trudeau also rubberstamped about $1.4 billion in taxpayer-funded bonuses to bureaucrats working in federal departments. The bonuses were paid out despite the Parliamentary Budget Officer finding “less than 50% of [performance] targets are consistently met.”Then there’s the bonuses at failing Crown corporations. CBC dished out $15 million in bonuses last year, while their President and CEO Catherine Tait whined about “chronic underfunding” and begged the government for more taxpayer cash. The CBC takes more than $1 billion from taxpayers every year. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation dished out $102 million in bonuses over the last four years, while Canadians couldn’t afford to buy a home. The bonuses rained down, despite the CMHC repeatedly claiming it’s “driven by one goal: housing affordability for all.”The Bank of Canada dished out more than $60 million in bonuses over the last three years, even though it failed to do its one and only job: keep inflation low and around two per cent.The average annual compensation for a full-time federal bureaucrat is $125,300, when pay, pension and perks are accounted for, according to the PBO. There are now more than 110,000 federal bureaucrats taking home a six-figure base salary — an increase of 154% since Trudeau took power. Meanwhile, data from Statistics Canada suggests the average annual salary among all full-time workers in Canada was less than $70,000 in 2023. Here’s why all this matters:First, it’s an issue of fairness. The last few years have spelled hardship for Canadians who don’t work for the government, but do pay the bills. Countless Canadians were sent to the ranks of the unemployed, lost their business and struggled to afford rising rents and costly grocery trips. They’re paying higher taxes so more highly-paid bureaucrats can take bigger paycheques.Second, more than half of the federal government’s day-to-day spending is consumed by the bureaucracy. That means any government that wants to fix the budget dumpster fire must shrink the bureaucracy.Let’s recap: Taxpayers paid for 108,000 new federal bureaucrats. Taxpayers paid for more than one million pay raises over the last four years. Taxpayers paid for more than $1 billion in bonuses. And bureaucrats barely meet even half of their performance targets — targets they set for themselves. It’s clear Trudeau’s bureaucratic bloat isn’t serving taxpayers. It’s time to find a pin and pop Ottawa’s ballooning bureaucracy.Franco Terrazzano is the Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.This is what the Western Standard is up againstThe Trudeau government is funding lies and propaganda by directly subsidizing the mainstream media. They do this to entrench the powerful Eastern, woke and corrupt interests that dominate the political, social and economic institutions in Canada. Federal authorities are constantly trying to censor us and stop us from publishing the stories that they don’t want you to read. Ottawa may weaponize our taxes and police against us, but we’ve got a powerful ally on our side.You. Free men, and free women. We need you to stand with us and become a member of the Western Standard. Here’s what you will get for your membership:Unlimited access to all articles from the Western Standard, Alberta Report, West Coast Standard, and Saskatchewan Standard, with no paywall. Our daily newsletter delivered to your inbox. .Access to exclusive Member-only WS events.Keep the West’s leading independent media voice strong and free.If you can, please support us with a monthly or annual membership. It takes just a moment to set up, and you will be making a big impact on keeping one the last independent media outlets in Canada free from Ottawa’s corrupting influence.
