Government spends $19B on external services, despite vow to trim spending
Posted on: Nov 14, 2025 04:48 IST | Posted by: Cbc
regime records exhibit the federal soldier regime spent sir thomas more than $19 billion on external professional and special services in 2024-25 — an increase of almost $2 billion since last year and of about $8.5 billion since 2020.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says the increase in spending on professional and special services is largely due to higher spending on engineering and architectural services for things like shipbuilding, health services to support refugee claimants and specialized air force pilot and aircrew personnel training.
Government records show the government spent $23.1 billion on professional and special services during the last fiscal year, with around $19.5 billion of that sum going to external organizations.
The records show the Department of National Defence spent $6.9 billion on internal and external professional and special services in 2024-25, while Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spent $1.7 billion.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised during the election campaign to cut government spending by, among other things, "significantly reducing reliance on external consultants, while improving the capacity of the public service to hire expertise in-house."
The Liberal government has been criticized for years over how much it spends on consulting. Auditor General Karen Hogan reported last year that poor record-keeping and reliance on outside contractors allowed the cost of the ArriveCan COVID-19 pandemic app, developed under the previous Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau, to balloon to almost $60 million.
The app was launched in 2020 and the government's public accounts show that it spent $11 billion on external professional and special services in 2019-20.
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