TERRAZZANO: Carney should listen to Canadians and cut bureaucracy

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Canadians know the federal bureaucracy costs too much and delivers too little.   

The federal government has added 99,000 bureaucrats since 2016.   

And it’s not just the number of bureaucrats that ballooned; the cost did too.   

The bureaucracy cost taxpayers $40.2 billion in 2016, according to the parliamentary budget officer (PBO). The bureaucracy cost taxpayers $71.2 billion last year. That means the cost of the federal bureaucracy has increased by 77% since 2016.  

The good news for taxpayers is that Canadians want the federal government to cut the size and cost of the bureaucracy.   

In a Leger poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, 54% of Canadians said they want the government to cut its bureaucracy. Just 4% of Canadians said the bureaucracy should increase, while 24% want to maintain the current size of the bureaucracy. The rest were unsure.  

Among Canadians with a firm opinion, two-thirds support cutting the size and cost of the bureaucracy.  

After Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government announced a spending review, government union bosses were quick to fearmonger about potential savings.    

The Canadian Union of Public Employees promised to “fight to defend against the devastating impacts that Mr. Carney’s cuts will have.”  

The Public Service Alliance of Canada says government savings “will hurt everyone in Canada who depends on vital public services.”  

But these scare tactics aren’t convincing Canadians.   

Half of Canadians say federal services are worse now than they were in 2016, according to the Leger poll. That’s despite the cost of the federal bureaucracy growing 77%.  

Only 11% of Canadians say federal services are better than they were in 2016, and most of those people acknowledge that services “should be better.”  

This is a huge blow to the unions’ spin. Government union bosses want people to think the sky will fall if bureaucrats get fired. But the government added 99,000 bureaucrats over the last 10 years and half of Canadians still say services are worse.   

After a decade of out-of-control bureaucratic hiring, cutting the cost of government through attrition doesn’t go far enough. The Carney government must fire bureaucrats.  

The number of federal bureaucrats has increased 38% since 2016, while Canada’s population grew by about 16%.   

There would be nearly 60,000 fewer federal employees had the bureaucracy grown in line with the population over the last decade. The average bureaucrat costs taxpayers $125,300 a year. That means taxpayers would save about $7 billion annually had the bureaucracy grown in line with the population.   

The government should also scale back the pay and perks of federal employees. That means ending taxpayer-funded bonuses.  

For starters, why are government employees getting bonuses? And why would an organization that is more than $1 trillion in debt think it has money for bonuses?  

Yet, the federal government has rubber-stamped more than $1.5 billion in bonuses since 2015, despite a report from the PBO that found that “less than 50% of (performance) targets are consistently met.”  

Let’s recap.  

The size and cost of the federal bureaucracy have spiralled out of control. Canadians want the government to cut the bureaucracy. And Canadians know that adding more government bureaucrats does not mean better services.   

Carney should listen to Canadians and cut the size and cost of government bureaucracy.  

Franco Terrazzano is the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation