Shrinking the bureaucratic behemoth

The old playbook of trimming travel budgets and giving departments arbitrary cut targets won’t cut it.

With a focused plan, $40-billion in savings in year one isn’t a fantasy—it’s feasible. But it will take a handful of sharp due diligence experts embedded in the Prime Minister Mark Carney and his key ministers’ offices, write Ram Mathilakath and Greg MacDougall.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY RAM MATHILAKATH, GREG MACDOUGALL

May 28, 2025

Canada’s federal government is starting to resemble a contestant on a reality weight-loss show—except it keeps gaining. And we’re not talking muscle. With personnel costs ballooning to over $65-billion and the civil service expanding by 43 per cent...

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