Canada’s Bloated Bureaucracy： +99,000 Staff, 77% Higher Costs & Worse Services
Episode Stats
Summary
The cost of the federal bureaucracy has ballooned by 77% since 2016, and it s time to trim the fat in Ottawa. But what will it mean for Canadian taxpayers if the government doesn t cut the size of the bureaucracy? And will services get worse?
Transcript
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the federal bureaucracy is so bloated, right? Okay. Like the federal government added 99,000
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extra government bureaucrats since 2016, 99,000 more federal paper pushers, right? But it's not
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just the number of bureaucrats that have gone up. So have the costs. Okay. The cost of the federal
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bureaucracy has ballooned 77% since 2016. It is outrageous. Now we asked Leger to do two polls
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for us. Okay. The first poll, very simple. Ask Canadians, do you think the government should
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cut, increase, or maintain the size of the bureaucracy? And look, the polling results show
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that more than half of Canadians said it's time to cut the size and cost the bureaucracy. Only 4%
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of Canadians said that it should be increased. So I guess even some of the government bureaucrats are
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looking around their offices and being like, yeah, there's some fat to cut. But look, if you remove
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people who are unsure or don't know, a total of 66% or two thirds of Canadians are saying enough is
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enough, take out the scissors, it's time to trim the fat in Ottawa. So just to play a little bit of
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devil's advocate, I mean, if they cut too much, they cut too quickly, wouldn't everybody suffer and be
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under, you know, a terrible pressure due to all the lack of all those government services provided?
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You mean the federal services could get worse than what they are now? Is that what you're saying,
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Corey? I don't know, there's always room to get worse. Look, it's a great segue into the next
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question that Leger asked, okay? Because, you know, when I talk about the cost of the bureaucracy,
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I always got to say, like, ask yourself, are you getting 77% better services from the federal
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bureaucracy? And it turns out the answer to that question is a big fat no, right? So the Leger poll,
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the second question, found that 50% of Canadians think services have gotten worse since 2016.
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Okay? Only 11% said that services have gotten better since 2016, but even the majority of those
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people still say that services should be better than what they have. So, you know, you asked me,
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well, if they cut off a bunch, you know, if they lay off a bunch of bureaucrats, fire a bunch of
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bureaucrats, will services get worse? Well, you know, I got to put that question back to the government
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union bosses that are fear-mongering right now over potential savings and be like, hey, hold on a
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second. You, uh, the cost of the bureaucracy has gone up significantly for Canadian taxpayers and
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yet services are, are still dismal. Okay. So I look at the numbers and I'm like, holy, like this is
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such a bloated government and clearly adding more bureaucrats doesn't mean better results for
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Canadians. No. And a parallel to it, which is, you know, kind of, it's a different discussion kind
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of, but it offers a good parallel. Our can of postal workers, whereas, uh, you know, we are getting more
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postal service than we ever did. In fact, we're using less than we ever have, but the cost of the
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institution is rising higher and higher. And I've been a little, uh, vocal online about my thoughts
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on postal workers and perhaps they, uh, they should seek newer employment, but the union types and
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everything keeps saying, well, you'll pay even more when they're all on welfare. How could we lay them
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off? It would mess with the entire economy. They contribute so much through their taxes.
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You know, that argument is going to come from the bureaucracies and their unions as well, right?
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Well, hold on a second though, right? The average compensation for a federal bureaucrat,
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the average is $125,000 a year. So no, we're not going to be paying more when it, when, and if the
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government cuts its bureaucracy, right? Like, come on. I mean, look, the bureaucracy is consuming more
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than half of the government's operating budget. And like, I, to a point that I think you're getting at,
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there's just certain things that we don't need the government to be doing, right? We don't need to be,
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have a essentially a government monopoly handing out mail, right? Like, come on, we got email. We've
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had email for a very long time. We definitely don't need a government monopoly. We don't need
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a government state broadcaster. Okay. We don't need the government losing hundreds of millions
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of dollars trying to operate a train company, i.e. via rail, right? So there's just so many different
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things that we don't need any government to be doing. And we especially don't need a government