Canada added ~1M public jobs

Canada’s public sector added about 950,000 jobs from 2015 to 2024, a rise that accounted for roughly 30% of all employment growth in the country. (fraserinstitute.org) The figures come from a Fraser Institute study using Statistics Canada labour-force data and cover federal, provincial and municipal government jobs. The report said public-sector employment grew 27.0% over the period, versus 13.4% in the private sector. (fraserinstitute.org) Statistics Canada’s latest year-end labour data showed the trend was still running in 2024. Public-sector employment rose by 156,000, or 3.7%, in the 12 months to December 2024, while private-sector employment rose by 191,000, or 1.4%. (statcan.gc.ca) A big share of that hiring sits outside Ottawa. The Fraser study said government employment grew faster than private-sector employment in every province except Manitoba between 2015 and 2024, with the widest gaps in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Quebec and British Columbia. (fraserinstitute.org) At the federal level, the payroll also expanded sharply. Treasury Board data put the federal public service at 367,772 employees as of March 31, 2024, up from 257,034 on March 31, 2015, an increase of more than 110,000 people. (canada.ca) (globalnews.ca) The hiring surge has fed into a wider fight over costs. Canada’s parliamentary budget officer estimated federal spending on wages and other personnel reached $71.1 billion in 2024-25 and projected it could rise to $76.2 billion by 2029-30 if unchanged. (cbc.ca) Another part of the argument is whether bigger payrolls produced better output. A Macdonald-Laurier Institute paper published in October 2025 said labour productivity in the government sector fell by 0.3% a year on average after 2015, while business-sector productivity rose by 0.5% a year. (macdonaldlaurier.ca) That same paper said government workers had moved from a slight productivity edge in 2015 to a 4% disadvantage by 2024, and estimated Canada’s gross domestic product would have been $32 billion higher in 2024 if government productivity had matched the business sector. (macdonaldlaurier.ca) The government’s case for a larger workforce is that new programs and service demands required more staff. Treasury Board President Anita Anand said in July 2024 that the public service “adjusts its size according to government priorities and program requirements,” and said the Liberals would keep it “well-staffed and efficient” while seeking $4.2 billion in savings over four years, including about 5,000 job cuts through attrition. (globalnews.ca) Budget 2024 also framed Ottawa’s approach as a push to expand housing, child care, dental care, pharmacare and other programs while trying to lift investment and productivity. The political fight now is less about whether government grew than about whether Canadians got enough service, speed and economic return for the added headcount. (budget.canada.ca)