Is rapid growth really necessary or damning proof of 'overpaid paper pushers'?
The number of federal public servants earning more than $150,000 a year has surged over the past five years, according to new figures from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS).
Data drawn from the Phoenix pay system show that 12,971 employees had an annual salary between $150,000 and $199,999 at the start of the 2024–25 fiscal year, up from 4,191 - or 209% - in 2020–21. The figures cover employees in the federal public service, including the core public administration and most separate agencies listed in Schedules I, IV and V of the Financial Administration Act.
Annual salary rates “reflect straight‑time pay rates in effect as of the end of April for each respective fiscal year,” according to the report.
In 2024–25, 994 employees had base salaries between $200,000 and $249,999, compared with 519 in 2020–21. The number earning between $250,000 and $299,999 rose to 220 from 62 over the same period. At the very top, 82 employees were in the $300,000–$399,999 range in 2024–25, up from 34 in 2020–21, and three employees were in the $400,000–$499,999 band. No employees were recorded with base salaries of $500,000 or more in any of the five years reported.
The Secretariat notes that the counts “include active employees across all employment tenures—indeterminate, term, casual, and student—as well as Governor in Council appointees and deputy ministers.” Judges are excluded, as are members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Forces, which are not considered part of the federal public service. Several separate agencies that do not submit data through Phoenix, including the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the National Capital Commission, are also excluded.
Meanwhile, 20,200 employees received more than $150,000 in total combined annual financial compensation—including base salary, performance pay, allowances, payments in lieu of leave and overtime—in 2024–25, according to TBS.
That number is up from 11,562 in 2020–21.
The data “capture all forms of cash compensation paid to employees during each fiscal year,” but exclude severance and other termination benefits, as well as employer contributions to pensions and benefits, according to the report.
‘Make the government more affordable for taxpayers’
Reacting to the numbers, Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said that Prime Minister Mark Carney “must take air out of Ottawa’s ballooning bureaucracy to fix the federal finances.”
“Carney needs to make the government more affordable for taxpayers and he should start by reining in the pay and perks for these top bureaucrats,” he said in a report from The Canadian Press. “Taxpayers can’t afford to keep bankrolling a bloated government full of overpaid paper pushers.”
The number of workers in the public sector has ballooned over the past decade, according to a previous report. The public sector in Canada added 950,000 jobs between 2015 and 2024, according to the Fraser Institute.
“This accounted for roughly 30% of all employment gains,” said Jason Childs, professor of economics at the University of Regina. During the same period, public sector employment grew at an average annual rate of 2.7% per year, while private sector employment grew at 1.7% per year, he said.
One particularly concerning trend for business leaders involves the explosive growth in public administration, according to Childs. The report notes that there were 328,200 more public administrators in 2024 than there were in 2015. This accounts for almost one-third of the growth in Canadian public sector employment, and for 10% of all net new employment.
The federal government is now working to shrink the workforce numbers in the public sector.
Budget 2025 marks a significant shift in the federal government’s approach to public sector management, with plans to reduce the size of the federal public service by about 40,000 positions—or 10 per cent—by 2028–29.
This reduction, which will bring the workforce down from a peak of almost 368,000 in 2023–24 to roughly 330,000, will be achieved through normal attrition, voluntary departures and targeted workforce adjustments.
Ottawa is also in the process of sending information about a voluntary early retirement program to nearly 70,000 employees, according to a previous CBC report.
But the workforce reduction agenda has been met with criticism.
On Friday, the Public Service Alliance of Canada said that 219 of its members at Natural Resources Canada received notices this week saying their jobs might be cut, according to a report from Global News. The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada also said about 200 of its members at the same agency stand to lose their jobs.
“The federal government’s decision to cut critical research programs and scientific positions at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) poses serious and avoidable risks to safety and security across the country,” said Sean O’Reilly, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC).
“We want to be clear. These cuts are not abstract. They do not just trim budgets on a spreadsheet; they increase risk. They are positions and programs that directly support disaster prevention, scientific monitoring, resource development, environmental protection, and Arctic sovereignty. At a time when Canada is facing increased threats, significant economic challenges, and big promises over resource projects, these programs are critical, not optional.”
Global News reported that there will also be job cuts at the Public Service Commission of Canada, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and the Department of Finance, among others.
Canada Post also expects to eliminate 30,000 more jobs in the next few years, on top of job cuts already announced this year, the Crown corporation previously said.
