[opendoor]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

The increase in public servants isn't as radical as you suggest when you consider population growth.

Number of employees
357,247 active employees in 2023 (282,980 in 2010)
Represents 0.90% of the Canadian population in 2023 (0.83% in 2010)

https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-bo...vice-2023.html

Most of the federal government debt is a legacy of the pandemic.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tru...vice-1.7172339

Not to mention, headcount is kind of meaningless on its own. If that growth in employees happened because they replaced expensive contractors with employees, that's probably a net win in terms of spending .

Actual costs are a far more useful measure. And the federal expenditures on goods and services (so excluding transfers, subsidies, interest payments, etc.) is basically as low as it has ever been (expenditures to GDP):

1980: 6.2%
1990: 6.4%
2000: 5.3%
2010: 5.0%
2024: 4.9%

It got slightly lower near the end of Harper's tenure at 4.6%, but that's a pretty minor difference. And we're currently lower than at any other time in the last 60 or so years.