Ottawa’s spending on staff ballooned during pandemic, likely to continue – National | 24CA News
The federal authorities’s spending on staff noticed report progress through the COVID-19 pandemic, says the parliamentary finances officer.
A newly printed report says federal spending on personnel elevated by nearly 31 per cent between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 fiscal years.
Spending on salaries, pensions and different worker compensation rose from $46.3 billion to $60.7 billion over that point interval.
The report says the general public service expanded by the equal of 31,227 full-time staff between April 2020 and March 2022, which departments attribute principally to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, common compensation for the equal of a full-time worker rose by 6.6 per cent, from $117,497 in 2019-20 to $125,300 in 2021-22.
The Parliamentary Budget Office says the rise in salaries was the biggest contributor to the rise in whole compensation, however spending on pensions, extra time and bonuses additionally grew at a quicker fee.
The PBO says expenditure may rise additional, with 26 out of 28 bargaining teams at the moment negotiating collective agreements.
If your complete public service have been to see compensation rise by 4.5 per cent between 2021 and 2023, and by the speed of inflation thereafter, this might quantity to $16.2 billion in further spending between 2023-24 and 2027-28, the report says.
Based on the 2023-24 departmental plans, the general public service will attain the equal of 428,000 full-time staff this fiscal yr.
That quantities to a rise of 23,000 full-time jobs in comparison with final yr’s plans.
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The report says the Canada Revenue Agency, Employment and Social Development Canada and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada account for two-thirds of that enhance.
But the finances watchdog provides that the departments’ present plans don’t embody the probably enhance in staff that will probably be wanted to hold out new measures introduced within the 2023 finances.
By the identical token, the federal Liberals promised within the finances to chop spending on the general public service by three per cent by 2026-27. It is unclear how that may have an effect on staffing.
The report says that as issues stand, by 2025-26, the overall variety of full-time staff within the authorities is projected to fall to 400,000 — a quantity that also exceeds pre-pandemic ranges.
The authorities was suffering from service delays through the pandemic, prompting further hiring to ease backlogs.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
