Ottawa’s civil service needs a Chrétien-style reset

Posted on October 23, 2025 by admin

They say bureaucracy grows to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.

That certainly seems to be Ottawa’s motto these days, with the number of federal civil servants swelling by more than 100,000 over the past decade.

As the bureaucracy grew, so did the resources it devoured and the burden it dumped on the federal budget. If the Carney government is serious about tackling its spending problem, it has no choice but to shrink the civil service. To its credit, the government has already signalled this may be coming, with Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne directing ministries earlier this month to cut program spending by 7.5 per cent in 2026-27, with deeper cuts to follow.

Payroll tells the story. When Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015, Ottawa was spending about $39.6 billion on employee compensation. Last year, that figure hit $71.1 billion—a staggering 79.5 per cent jump in nine years.

Numbers that big are hard to picture, so here’s what they mean: $71.1 billion equals roughly $1,700 per Canadian, or about $7,000 for a family of four.

That’s a lot of money. Given those costs, Canadians are right to ask whether they’re getting anything close to value. The answer, judging by opinion surveys, is no.

Passport lines still snake around the block. Clearing customs at the airport remains a test of endurance. And if you dare call the Canada Revenue Agency, pack a lunch, you’ll be on hold long enough to need it. For all the extra spending, everyday frustrations remain the same.

If all that spending hasn’t delivered better results, it’s a flashing neon sign that resources are being wasted. The civil service is a prime candidate for cuts that could be made with little, if any, impact on the quality or speed of services Canadians actually receive.

The average compensation for a full-time federal job is now around $150,000 a year. That includes salary, taxpayer-funded pension contributions, and a generous menu of benefits.

By contrast, the average Canadian earns about $60,000—the same taxpayer footing the bill—and the inequity speaks for itself.

The problem isn’t just the cost but the culture. In the private sector, businesses constantly ask whether jobs are necessary and whether people can be redeployed. In government, the tendency is to keep hiring, with little scrutiny of whether those positions are truly needed.

Yet there is precedent for Ottawa getting serious about reform. In the 1990s, Jean Chrétien’s government undertook a sweeping review that eliminated more than 17 per cent of federal positions.

If the Carney government followed that model, it could trim about 64,000 taxpayer-funded jobs and save at least $10 billion a year.

With Ottawa projected to run a deficit of over $40 billion this year, one of the largest structural deficits outside of the pandemic years, Canadians should expect—no, demand—an equally ambitious review.

Renaud Brossard is vice-president of communications at the Montreal Economic Institute, a think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary.

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