Lorne Gunter: Want to cut federal expenses? Start with the civil service

Here’s a staggering statistic for you: Nearly 40 per cent of the federal civil service (147,000 of 373,000 federal bureaucrats) made in excess of $100,000 in 2024. The average Canadian made just shy of $68,000.

And that sum doesn’t include the bureaucrats’ retroactive pay raises paid out last year. Nor does it include their very expensive perks or the generous contributions Ottawa makes to its workers’ lavish pensions.

Recommended Videos

Thanks to some tenacious digging by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), who came up with the above figures, we know the 147,000 figure is a steep increase from the 111,000 federal civil servants who took in more than $100,000 in 2023. Indeed, it marks a 32 per cent increase in the number of $100k+ federal workers in just one year.

Another way to l