Federal Payroll Totalled a Record of $67B in 2023

The total cost of federal employee salaries and benefits reached a new high of $67 billion in the past year, says Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux, marking a 68 percent increase from $40.2 billion in 2016. Mr. Giroux highlighted the growth in payroll costs in a Feb. 22 report titled “Supplementary Estimates (C),” as first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter. The report said the costs have been expanding at an average rate of 9 percent annually alongside an expansion of the federal workforce, with 428,000 employees in the last year compared to 340,461 in 2016. Mr. Giroux expressed concerns during his testimony before the Commons government operations committee on Oct. 19, 2023, over the payroll expense growth, emphasizing the absence of corresponding improvements in services for Canadians despite the increased hiring....