Cost of bloated bureaucracy grew by 80% since 2015

OTTAWA — The cost of Canada’s bureaucracy grew by over 80% over the past decade, newly-released government numbers suggest.

As documented in the 2024-25 Public Accounts of Canada’s disclosures , Canada spent $71.4 billion on personnel across all government departments and agencies in the 2024/25 fiscal year — compared to $39.6 billion spent in 2015/16.

Last year’s numbers also include $23.1 billion spent on outsourcing government work to outside contractors, an expenditure that increased over 110% over the past decade.

“Taxpayers should not be paying way more for in-house government bureaucrats and way more for outside help,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“Mere promises to find minor savings in the federal bureaucracy won’t fix Canad