Political staffers, union rules, and bureaucratic bloat are crippling Canada’s public service
Canada’s public service was once the gold standard—efficient, professional and dedicated to serving the public. Today, it’s a bloated, dysfunctional mess where political insiders and bureaucratic red tape dictate the agenda, not the elected officials or the citizens they’re supposed to serve.
A new report from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy by former MP Dorothy Dobbie lays bare the ugly truth: our government has been hijacked by political staffers, union-driven mediocrity and an army of middle managers who add layers of obstruction rather than solutions.
It’s not just inefficient—it’s dangerous. And if we don’t act fast, Canadians will continue paying the price in rising costs, declining services and a government that serves itself rather than the people.
How did we get here?
It starts with the people pulling the strings behind the scenes. Political staffers—unelected, often inexperienced and more focused on party loyalty than policy—wield far too much power. They act as gatekeepers, deciding what information ministers see, controlling public access and shielding their bosses from scrutiny. They aren’t accountable to voters, yet they dictate policy decisions that affect every Canadian.
Dobbie points to the recent scandal involving foreign interference briefings—critical intelligence was buried, never making it to the officials who needed it most. That’s what happens when power is concentrated in the hands of people who put politics above national interest.
Then there’s the public sector unions, which have transformed government jobs into lifelong entitlements rather than positions of service. Promotions are based on seniority, not skill. Firing incompetent employees is nearly impossible. Productivity? An afterthought.
One senior public servant told Dobbie they were actually advised to “stop working so hard” because it made their colleagues look bad. Imagine that—putting in an honest day’s work is now frowned upon in Canada’s public service.
And the bureaucratic bloat? It’s staggering. The federal government’s job classification system has 516 occupational categories. That means endless layers of middle managers, each adding more paperwork, delays and inefficiencies. Instead of empowering civil servants to make decisions, we’ve created a system where process trumps results.
The result? A government so tangled in its own inefficiencies that it can’t deliver for Canadians.
Health care is in crisis, but instead of cutting red tape and letting doctors do their jobs, we get committees, consultants and reports that go nowhere. Infrastructure projects take years—sometimes decades—because every decision has to be approved by layer upon layer of bureaucrats. Public safety and national security take a backseat to political calculations.
And let’s not forget the political parties themselves. Dobbie exposes how insiders manipulate candidate nominations, shutting out qualified, service-driven individuals in favour of backroom loyalists. The system rewards those who play the political game, not those who want to serve the public.
How do we fix it?
Dobbie doesn’t just diagnose the problem—she offers a roadmap to fix it. And it starts with returning power to where it belongs: elected officials and the people who vote for them.
Here’s what needs to change, according to Dobbie:
- Political staffers need to be reined in. Ministers—not their unelected handlers—should be making the decisions. Staffers should be limited in their ability to run for office immediately after leaving their roles to prevent career politicians from manipulating the system.
- Candidate nominations should be democratic. No more party insiders hand-picking who gets to run. Open the process and let grassroots members decide.
- Public sector hiring must be based on merit. Seniority should not be the only qualification for advancement. The best people should get the jobs, period.
- Middle management needs to be slashed. We don’t need an endless web of bureaucrats slowing things down. Decision-making should be streamlined, not suffocated.
- Unions should not dictate government operations. Compensation should reward performance, not just tenure. Incompetent employees should be held accountable—not protected by bureaucracy.
This isn’t just about making government more efficient. It’s about restoring public trust. Canadians are tired of a system prioritizing insiders over citizens, process over results, and politics over good governance.
It’s a ticking time bomb.
The warning signs are flashing red. If we don’t fix this broken system now, we risk watching Canada slide further into stagnation, inefficiency and public disillusionment.
Government isn’t meant to be a self-serving machine—it’s meant to work for the people. But that won’t happen unless we demand real change.
The time for excuses is over. The time for action is now.
| Troy Media
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