EDITORIAL: Will Carney clean up Trudeau’s mess?

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During the election, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised taxpayers a more efficient government bureaucracy, costing them less money while delivering better public services.

It’s time for him to deliver because what Canadians got in the near-decade of Liberal government under Justin Trudeau was a public service that grew dramatically in size and cost while delivering deteriorating services.

During the Trudeau era, the size of the public service increased by almost 40%, from 257,034 to 357,965, double the rate of population growth, even as that was being boosted by the Trudeau policy of massive immigration.

A portion of those new jobs were the result of the pandemic, but five years on, the numbers remain inexplicably high.

Despite all those new hires, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux reported in 2023 that the Trudeau government was also spending $21.4 billion annually hiring outside help — 106% more than the $10.4 billion spent when Trudeau took power in 2015.

What did we get for all that money?

Scandals such as the ArriveCAN app, which was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up at $60 million, plus the billion-dollar Sustainable Development Technology fund, which the government shut down amid allegations of fraud.

“From Veterans Affairs to people applying for employment insurance to passports, services are not getting better,” Giroux warned.  “There are pockets of excellence, but there are also pockets of, I would say, nonchalance in the public service.”

During the Liberal leadership race, Carney criticized Trudeau for driving up the operating costs of the federal government by an average of 9% annually, saying it was one reason the Canadian economy was in precarious shape before Donald Trump’s tariffs hit.

Carney promised to cut operating costs by an increase of less than 2% annually and balance the operating budget within three years to “spend less so we can invest more.”

During the election, he said he would achieve that, in part, by finding cumulative savings of $13 billion due to “increased government productivity,” now up to a new requirement of $25 billion in his recent instructions to cabinet ministers.

Many of the same cabinet ministers responsible for spending more and delivering less during the Trudeau era still serve under Carney — the political equivalent of sending in rabbits to guard the lettuce patch.