Canadian taxpayers are paying even more for expenses incurred by the Prime Minister’s Office under the Trudeau government.
According to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the PMO’s cost is escalating.
After being adjusted for inflation the PMO has seen a 16% jump to staffing expenses since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office.
The PMO’s 103 staff members accounted for $10.5 million in combined salaries for the 2022-23 year, however, that figure only includes base salary, not benefits.
“The cost of running the PMO has increased under Trudeau, but it’s a good bet most Canadians don’t think they’re getting any better performance from the prime minister,” said federal director of the CTF Franco Terrazzano.
“If Trudeau can’t find savings right under his nose, how can taxpayers trust him to cut the fat across government?”
Annual spending on PMO salary costs is also up $3.2 million, compared to 2014-15 under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration.
It’s not surprising that the federal government has ballooned in both size and cost overall under Trudeau’s leadership.
According to government records, the number of federal bureaucrats has jumped up by 42% since the Liberals took office, with Canadian taxpayers now on the hook for an additional 108,000 new individual bureaucrats’ salaries.
Spending on federal employees hit a record high as well in 2022-23, marking a 68% increase since 2016 and costing $67.4 billion in taxpayer-money.
That doesn’t include the over $1 billion paid out in bonuses since 2015, or the $1,121,110 that was rubber stamped in pay raises since 2020.
The upper echelons of Trudeau’s senior executives and managers have also been well taken care of, with costs increasing by 42% under his watch.
Additionally, expenditures on consultants hit a record high for 2023-24, currently sitting at $21.6 billion.
“Everywhere you look – the PMO, the federal c-suite, the bureaucracy – the cost and size of government is out of control,” said Terrazzano.
“Trudeau must take air out of Ottawa’s ballooning bureaucracy and the place to start is his own office.”