SASKATOON, SK: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the federal, Saskatchewan and municipal governments to cut the cost of their respective bureaucracies as Statistics Canada data shows that more than 28 per cent of Saskatchewanians work for some level of government.

“Premier Scott Moe, Prime Minister Mark Carney and mayors across Saskatchewan need stop spending so much on their bloated bureaucracies,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “Saskatchewan taxpayers can’t afford to keep paying for all of these bureaucrats across the province.”

More than 28 per cent of those employed in Saskatchewan work for the government, according to Statistics Canada. That’s a higher proportion of employees working for the government than anywhere else in Western Canada.

In British Columbia, 21 per cent of people work for the government. In Manitoba it’s 26 per cent and in Alberta it’s 18.4 per cent.

The Saskatchewan government spent about $8.5 billion paying its employees last year. That works out to about 40 per cent of the government’s total spending.

The average government employees earn a 4.8 per cent wage premium over their private sector counterparts, despite doing similar work, according to the Fraser Institute.

“Other similar provinces are getting along just fine with smaller bureaucracies,” Haubrich said. “The feds, the province and local governments should follow their example and cut the size of their bureaucracies to find savings for taxpayers.”

The provincial government will increase the debt to about $23.9 billion by the end of this year. The government will waste $878.4 million on debt interest payments this year.