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Waste · The full story

Outside Services: $19.6B a Year, Up 135% Since 2015-16, While the Public Service Grew 38%

Ottawa spent $19.6B on outside professional and special services in 2024-25, 135% more than in 2015-16, while the public service grew 38%; Budget 2023 announced $7.1B in savings over five years from this line and travel, and in 2024-25 the line rose $1.8B.

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See it in the full count of federal waste

Outside professional and special services, a year

Public Accounts of Canada, Table 3.9 and Volume II

A year

$19.6B

Professional and special services, 2024-25, audited.

Growth since 2015-16

135%

The public service grew 38%.

The cut announced

$7.1B

Budget 2023, over five years, travel included.

What happened

Growth, 2015-16 to 2024-25 (dollars before inflation)

  • Outside professional and special services135%
  • The federal public service, people38%
  • Outside services per public servant70%

Public Accounts of Canada; Treasury Board, population of the public service

  1. 2015-16Ottawa spends $8.4B on professional and special services. We start here because the Auditor General found department spending on the kinds of service McKinsey sold rose from 2015. Auditor General, Report 5, paragraph 5.26, Jun 2024
  2. Mar 2016The public service counts 258,979 people. Treasury Board, Population of the federal public service
  3. 2022-23The line is $15.7B, on the audited basis. Public Accounts of Canada 2023, Volume I, Table 3.9
  4. Professional and special services, 2015-16: $8.4B Professional and special services, 2024-25: $19.6BAreas to scale
  5. Mar 2023Budget 2023 promises to cut consulting, other professional services and travel by roughly 15% of planned spending: $7.1B over five years, of it $500.0M in 2023-24 and $1.7B in 2024-25. Budget 2023, Chapter 6, section 6.1
  6. Mar 2024The public service reaches 367,772, the highest in Treasury Board’s series from 2015. The line reaches $17.8B for 2023-24. Public Accounts of Canada 2024, Volume I, Table 3.9
  7. Jan 2025The PBO finds IT contractors on task-based work cost 22% to 25.7% more than public servants in the same roles. PBO, Fiscal cost of task-based IT contracting, Jan 2025
  8. Mar 2025The public service falls to 357,965. The line reaches $19.6B, up $1.8B in a year. Public Accounts of Canada 2025, Volume I, Table 3.9

Both grew: the outside bill by 135% in dollars before inflation, the public service by 38%.

Who decided

Refocusing Government Spending · Budget 2023

Cut, share of planned spending
15%
Savings over five years
$7.1B
Ongoing, a year
$1.7B
Travel included
Yes
Budget 2023, Chapter 6, section 6.1
  1. The Minister of Finance, in Budget 2023. set the cut at roughly 15% of planned 2023-24 discretionary spending on consulting, other professional services and travel, “particularly management consulting”. Budget 2023, Chapter 6, section 6.1
  2. National Defence. bought more engineering and architecture from outside, the PBO found. PBO, Personnel Expenditure Analysis, Update, Apr 2023

The cut was measured against plans, not against the year before, so the line could rise with the cut still counted.

What the money bought

What the label holds, 2022-23

PBO, January 2025, Table 1, from the Public Accounts

The label is wide. Of $18.6B in 2022-23, as departments recorded it (the audited total, after adjustments, is $15.7B), engineering and architecture took $4.0B, business services $3.7B, IT $2.7B and health services $2.2B. PBO, Fiscal cost of task-based IT contracting, Jan 2025

Management consulting, the part the cut was aimed at, was $800.0M, about 4% of it. PBO, Fiscal cost of task-based IT contracting, Jan 2025

Inside IT, the PBO found task-based contractors cost 22% to 25.7% more than public servants would. PBO, Fiscal cost of task-based IT contracting, Jan 2025

Consultants are a sliver of it. Engineers, IT and business services are most of it.

Their figure, and the full cost

The pledge against the line, by year

The line, 2022-23
$15.7B
Pledged saving, 2023-24
$500.0M
The line, 2023-24
$17.8B
Pledged saving, 2024-25
$1.7B
The line, 2024-25
$19.6B
Budget 2023, Chapter 6 table; Public Accounts 2023 to 2025, Table 3.9

Their figureThe government’s figure: $7.1B saved over five years from consulting, other professional services and travel, then $1.7B a year, against what departments had planned to spend.

The full costThe Public Accounts show the line itself in every year since: $15.7B in 2022-23, $17.8B in 2023-24 and $19.6B in 2024-25. On the departments’ own count, before services bought from other federal bodies are taken out, 2024-25 was $23.1B.

2024-25, two counts of the same line

  • As departments recorded it$23.1B
  • Audited total, outside spending$19.6B

Public Accounts of Canada 2025, Volume II and Table 3.9

The bridge
  1. The saving is measured against plans, roughly 15% of planned 2023-24 discretionary spending. Budget 2023’s chapter 6, which we read, gives no dollar baseline for those plans, so the cut cannot be checked against one. Budget 2023, Chapter 6, section 6.1
  2. Pledged: $500.0M in 2023-24 and $1.7B in 2024-25. The audited line rose in both years, from $15.7B to $19.6B. Public Accounts of Canada 2025, Volume I, Table 3.9
  3. Departments recorded $23.1B for 2024-25. The Public Accounts adjust for accruals, add Crown corporations and other entities, and take out services bought between federal bodies, to reach $19.6B. Public Accounts 2025, Volume II, expenditures by object (open data)

What the full measure cannot reach yet: the 2024-25 split by type of service, which sits in Volume III of the Public Accounts, and any published tally of the Budget 2023 savings by department.

Their best case

What the work is, by the PBO’s count

Engineering and architecture, 2022-23
$4.0B
Health and welfare services
$2.2B
Management consulting
$800.0M
PBO, January 2025, Table 1, from the Public Accounts

Put as they would put it, in their own words.

  1. The Department of Finance, Budget 2023. said the reductions would target professional services, “particularly management consulting”. Budget 2023, Chapter 6, section 6.1
  2. The Treasury Board, as The Canadian Press reported it. put the 2024-25 rise down to engineering work such as shipbuilding, health services for refugee claimants, and air force training. The Canadian Press, 13 Nov 2025
  3. The Parliamentary Budget Officer, 2023. found National Defence “considerably expanded its expenditures on engineering and architectural services”. PBO, Personnel Expenditure Analysis, Update, Apr 2023

Our read

Outside professional and special services, a year

Public Accounts of Canada, Table 3.9 and Volume II

The best case is real. Much of the line is engineers, IT builders, health workers and trainers the public service does not employ.

But the record shows both grew at once: the public service by 38% from 2016 to 2025, the outside bill by 135%. Per public servant, outside services went from $32,254 to $54,748. Our read: Ottawa is paying for two workforces, and the one it does not employ grew faster.

Our read, too: a cut against plans that chapter 6 gives no dollar figure for cannot be checked, and that absence is the finding. The line rose in 2023-24 and again in 2024-25.

Two workforces, one taxpayer. A cut with no baseline, and a line that rose in both years after it.

Still open

  • Whether the cut happened. Treasury Board’s refocusing page, which we read, gives the total taken back, not a tally by department. The departmental results reports would show more.
  • Which parts grew. Volume III of the Public Accounts splits the line by type, year by year.
Federal spending on outside professional services, 2024-25: $19.6B

The next read

Outside services are one item in the full count of federal overruns, failures and improper payments.

The waste file

The receipts

  1. Public Accounts of Canada 2025, Volume I, Table 3.9
  2. Public Accounts of Canada 2024, Volume I, Table 3.9
  3. Public Accounts of Canada 2023, Volume I, Table 3.9
  4. Auditor General, Report 5, paragraph 5.26, Jun 2024
  5. Public Accounts 2016, Volume II, expenditures by object (open data)
  6. Public Accounts 2025, Volume II, expenditures by object (open data)
  7. Budget 2023, Chapter 6, section 6.1
  8. PBO, Fiscal cost of task-based IT contracting, Jan 2025
  9. PBO, Personnel Expenditure Analysis, Update, Apr 2023
  10. Treasury Board, Population of the federal public service
  11. The Canadian Press, 13 Nov 2025

What changed

  • PublishedPublished: outside professional services, their growth, and the cut pledged in 2023.