RENAUD BROSSARD
OTTAWA – If it is serious about reining in spending and controlling the size of its bureaucracy, Ottawa should take a page from the Chrétien government’s 1994 Program Review, states a new MEI Viewpoint released this morning.
“Over the course of Justin Trudeau’s tenure as prime minister, Ottawa underwent an unprecedented hiring spree,” said Renaud Brossard, vice president of communications at the MEI and contributor to the publication. “If Prime Minister Mark Carney is serious about changing course from his predecessor, his government would be wise to draw lessons from what worked in the past.”
In the last federal election campaign, Prime Minister Carney promised to cap the size of the federal workforce.
Under his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, the number of federal bureaucrats rose by over 110,000 employees – a 43 per cent increase – bringing the current total to 367,772.
That’s 9.0 federal employees per 1,000 residents, up from 7.2 when he took office.
By contrast, the government of the United Kingdom requires only 7.4 employees per 1,000 inhabitants to oversee more responsibilities than Canada’s federal government.
Meanwhile, the government of Germany, which has similar sets of responsibilities to our federal government, employs just over 6.2 employees per 1,000 inhabitants.
“When we compare Canada’s federal bureaucracy with its international peers, we can see just how inefficiently our money is being allocated,” added Mr. Brossard. “This represents billions of extra dollars that we wouldn’t have to spend if it weren’t for the lax governance of previous years.”
Federal personnel costs were on track to exceed $70 billion last year, up from $40 billion in 2016-17. This represents one out of every seven dollars the government spends.
The MEI argues that much of this expense is financed by large deficits. Just last year, the federal government posted a $61.9 billion deficit, far exceeding its promise to keep it below $40.1 billion.
The MEI publication points out that, in 1993, Canada grappled with persistent deficits, a similarly high ratio of bureaucrats, and an unsustainable national debt.
In the following year, the Chrétien government launched the Program Review, which applied clear criteria to evaluate federal programs based on public need and fiscal capacity. These standards guided decisions on whether to retain, restructure, or eliminate positions while protecting essential services.
The Program Review reduced the size of the federal workforce by over 42,000 employees, or 17.4 per cent.
A similar reduction today would mean eliminating approximately 64,000 positions, returning the bureaucracy to its pre-Trudeau per capita size, and permanently lowering government spending by nearly $10 billion annually by 2029.
“Chrétien’s reforms worked because they were targeted and pragmatic,” explains Mr. Brossard. “His government proved that it is possible to provide essential services while tackling overspending.
“All it took was a sense of urgency and a little political courage.”
The MEI Viewpoint is available here: https://www.iedm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/viewpoint082025.pdf
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