Statistics Canada saw the second-largest increase in public servants, because employees of the statistical survey operations division were brought into the core public service under Statistics Canada.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The number of workers in Canada’s federal public service climbed to a new high this year, but the pace of growth was the slowest in seven years as the government moves to curb spending after a surge of hiring during the pandemic.
There were 367,772 federal public servants as of March 31, up 10,525 or 2.9 per cent from the year before, according to recently updated numbers published by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
The federal work force count doesn’t include members of the Canadian Armed Forces or RCMP regular forces.
The new numbers show National Defence increased its head count the most of all departments over the past year, expanding by 1,384 employees to 28,740.
Statistics Canada saw the second-largest increase. However, that was because employees of the statistical survey operations division, which carries out survey work and had previously been considered a separate agency, were brought into the core public service under Statistics Canada as part of an agreement between the government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada union.
The third fastest-growing department was civilian staff at the RCMP, which increased by 923 to 10,309.
When adjusted for the size of Canada’s rapidly growing population, which stood at 41 million in April, the growth of the federal service levelled off at 8.9 workers for every 1,000 people, virtually unchanged from last year.
That marked the first year the federal work force did not grow faster than Canada’s population since the Liberals took office in 2015.
“The Canadian population is rising so fast that perhaps it doesn’t look like the federal government is still hiring a lot, but it is,” said Gabriel Giguère, a senior policy analyst with the Montreal Economic Institute.
“We need to look at what departments are having the biggest increases and those aren’t linked to providing services to Canadians.”
To that point, Ottawa’s two largest departments, the Canada Revenue Agency and Employment and Social Development Canada, each expanded by less than 3 per cent after witnessing explosive growth during the pandemic as the federal government ramped up emergency support programs such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
For instance, between 2019 and 2023 the CRA alone added 14,000 new employees, a 34-per-cent increase. In 2024 the CRA grew by just 136 employees.
The gear-down in hiring comes as Ottawa talks up its efforts to rein in spending.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government laid out a plan to refocus $15.8-billion in spending over five years, with the first phase of that coming mostly through cuts to travel and the use of consultants. The 2024 federal budget document said the second phase will involve cutting 5,000 full-time equivalent federal public-service jobs over the next four years through attrition.
A full-time equivalent position is a different metric from that used by the Treasury Board which is based on headcount from the federal pay system.
The day after the budget was released in April, Treasury Board President Anita Anand said there had been “significant growth in the public service” to administer pandemic programs but now it was “looking at ways in which we can save money, cut red tape and ensure that our taxpayer dollars are allocated towards our government priorities.”
However, Mr. Giguère questioned whether the government will achieve its reduction target when the federal work force was still growing so fast.
“It’s hard to believe it until we see it,” he said.
Economists have expressed concern that Canada’s job market has been driven by public-sector hiring at all levels of government, while private-sector job growth has been weak. That trend has continued, with the latest employment report from Statscan for June showing the public sector added 182,700 employees since the same month last year, compared with just 106,100 private-sector employees.