Canada, we have a government bureaucracy problem. It’s so glaring even the federal Liberals can’t ignore it. “Bureaucracy in Canada is slowing the country’s ability to boost its economy, Dominic LeBlanc says,” read a recent headline. “We’re not getting the GDP boost that we can and should,” the federal minister of intergovernmental affairs was quoted as saying. “It’s the bureaucratic system that gets heavier and heavier.”

Canada’s bureaucracy isn’t just getting heavier, its bloat is suffocating taxpayers. Since 2020, the growth of government jobs — federal, provincial and municipal — has been more than triple job growth outside government, according to Statistics Canada. The number of government jobs is up 21.4 per cent, the number of jobs outside government just 6.6 per cent.

Taxpayers aren’t just paying for more frontline nurses, teachers or doctors. The number of “public administration” jobs — the league of extraordinary government paper pushers — ballooned nearly 27 per cent.

Not only is Canada’s percentage of government employees high compared to modern Canadian standards, it’s also high relative to other comparable countries, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s chart. In 2023, government employment in this country was about 20.2 per cent of total employment, the OECD says. In other countries it was much less: 17.1 per cent in the U.K, 15.7 per cent in Australia, 12.3 per cent in the Netherlands, 11.5 per cent in Germany, 11.5 per cent in Switzerland and just 4.9 per cent in Japan.

Canadian taxpayers would pay for 300,000 fewer government employees if Canada brought its share of government bureaucrats down to match the OECD average of 18.4 per cent.

The bloated body of bureaucrats in Canada is just the head count of employees paid directly by government. The numbers don’t include employees of businesses that are private-sector on paper but live off taxpayer handouts.

Canadian governments doled out $52 billion in subsidies to business in 2022, according to the Fraser Institute. That’s an 83 per cent increase in 10 years. Ottawa alone spent $23 billion on consultants, contractors and outsourcing last year, twice what it did 10 years ago.

Not only are taxpayers paying for more government employees as a share of total employment, they are also paying for more government consultants, contractors and corporate welfare handouts.

This problem is so big that even politicians in Ottawa are forced to admit there’s a problem. “From a peak of almost 368,000 in 2023-24, the public service population is expected to reach roughly 330,000 by the end of 2028-29 — a decline of about 40,000 positions or 10 per cent,” reads last November’s federal budget.

That goal may sound lofty, but even if Ottawa cuts 10 per cent of its employees, its bureaucracy may still cost taxpayers more money. The federal government’s Main Estimates forecast bureaucracy costs increasing another five per cent in 2026-27. And that’s after the government increased bureaucracy costs 80 per cent over the last 10 years.

The higher costs happen when higher pay outpaces the reduction in bureaucrats. The Parliamentary Budget Officer forecasts compensation per full-time federal employee will increase from $148,000 in 2023 to $170,000 in 2028.

If Ottawa cuts the number of federal employees by 10 per cent but doesn’t stop increases to salaries and perks, the federal bureaucracy will cost taxpayers about $67 billion in 2028. That would be $1 billion more than the Trudeau government’s bureaucracy cost in 2022, even after adjusting for inflation.

The first step in solving any problem is acknowledging there is one. The bureaucracy is now so big that Carney, his ministers and his MPs have had to acknowledge it. The next step is for them to find scissors big enough to cut back the bureaucracy and save taxpayers money.

This column was originally published in the Financial Post on March 26, 2026.