It covers years 2010 to 2024. The total of "core public administration" changed from 216,596 in 2010 to 217,224 in 2011 and to 195,330 in 2014 (Harper 2006 to 2015) and from that to 282,152 in 2024 (Trudeau years).
The cuts (2010 to 2015) seem to mirror the increases (2015 to 2024) geographically across the country, not really favoring or diminishing the political capital of any particular party.
We're saying the same thing but including different things.
By my count, which I think of as conservative, at March 31, 2024, the Canadian federal public service employed a total of 367,772 individuals. This figure encompasses the Core Public Administration (about 282,152 ) and Separate Agencies (about 85,620).
It does not include CAF personnel, RCMP Regular Force members or locally engaged employees outside Canada. I don't have this exact figure handy, but it would add more than an additional hundred thousand.
It'a conservative because it doesn't include the contractors and consultants, often retired civil servants who come back in other, even less accountable and more expensive roles.
In the 2023–2024 fiscal year, the federal government spent a record $20.7 billion on outsourcing contracts, marking a consistent increase from previous years.
Between 2014 and 2024, the Canadian federal civil service expanded from 195,000 to 367,772 employees, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 6.55% per year. This growth significantly outpaced Canada's real GDP per capita growth, which had a CAGR of about 1.7% during the same period.
The increase in the civil service workforce has been accompanied by a substantial rise in personnel expenditures. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), federal spending on salaries, pensions, and other employee compensation rose from $46.3 billion in 2019-20 to $60.7 billion in 2021-22, marking a 30.9% increase over two fiscal years. While I haven't seen figures for 2024 , this trend suggests a massive escalation in personnel costs over the last 10 years.
Thanks for posting this editorial. It is important to note the necessity of regulations. The term “red tape” has nefarious origins that are worth investigating. That might make a whole article. The Libertarian fantasy is a front for a kind of self centred antisocial kind of economics that strews garbage in its wake. People are the market. No getting around that fact. Some people are criminal and antisocial. That’s why it is prudent to have qualified, publicly certified and legislated rules. Those rules can and should govern all departments and the legislature itself. What laws allowed this bloat of bureaucracy to happen?
Hi JW . . .
The link below is to a gov't website in response to my Google query "Geographic distribution of federal bureaucracy across Canada" . . .
https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/innovation/human-resources-statistics/population-federal-public-service-geographic-region.html
It covers years 2010 to 2024. The total of "core public administration" changed from 216,596 in 2010 to 217,224 in 2011 and to 195,330 in 2014 (Harper 2006 to 2015) and from that to 282,152 in 2024 (Trudeau years).
The cuts (2010 to 2015) seem to mirror the increases (2015 to 2024) geographically across the country, not really favoring or diminishing the political capital of any particular party.
So it seems to me?
We're saying the same thing but including different things.
By my count, which I think of as conservative, at March 31, 2024, the Canadian federal public service employed a total of 367,772 individuals. This figure encompasses the Core Public Administration (about 282,152 ) and Separate Agencies (about 85,620).
It does not include CAF personnel, RCMP Regular Force members or locally engaged employees outside Canada. I don't have this exact figure handy, but it would add more than an additional hundred thousand.
It'a conservative because it doesn't include the contractors and consultants, often retired civil servants who come back in other, even less accountable and more expensive roles.
In the 2023–2024 fiscal year, the federal government spent a record $20.7 billion on outsourcing contracts, marking a consistent increase from previous years.
Between 2014 and 2024, the Canadian federal civil service expanded from 195,000 to 367,772 employees, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 6.55% per year. This growth significantly outpaced Canada's real GDP per capita growth, which had a CAGR of about 1.7% during the same period.
The increase in the civil service workforce has been accompanied by a substantial rise in personnel expenditures. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), federal spending on salaries, pensions, and other employee compensation rose from $46.3 billion in 2019-20 to $60.7 billion in 2021-22, marking a 30.9% increase over two fiscal years. While I haven't seen figures for 2024 , this trend suggests a massive escalation in personnel costs over the last 10 years.
Thanks for posting this editorial. It is important to note the necessity of regulations. The term “red tape” has nefarious origins that are worth investigating. That might make a whole article. The Libertarian fantasy is a front for a kind of self centred antisocial kind of economics that strews garbage in its wake. People are the market. No getting around that fact. Some people are criminal and antisocial. That’s why it is prudent to have qualified, publicly certified and legislated rules. Those rules can and should govern all departments and the legislature itself. What laws allowed this bloat of bureaucracy to happen?