Pierre Poilievre promises to slash government consultant spending to pre-Liberal levels

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pledging to cut the federal government’s bloated budget for outside consultants by $10 billion annually, if his party wins government, returning consultant fees to levels last seen under the Harper Conservative government.

Poilievre made the promise on Sunday in a grocery store in Surrey, B.C., where he stood behind a sign on his podium that read “Axe The Inflation Tax” — a twist on his anti-carbon-tax “axe the tax” slogan. He was joined by many of his local candidates in the area. He noted that increased federal government spending has driven up inflation.

“As prime minister, I will axe the inflation tax,” he said. “We will do this by cutting waste, capping spending, reducing deficits, taxes and inflation. We will cut bureaucracy, foreign aid, handouts to corporate insiders, special interest groups and consultants.”

Poilievre said he would specifically address the “inflated” cost of consultants, which have doubled since the Liberals took power in 2015. Poilievre claims the current levels of outsourcing are costing the average family more than $1,000 in federal taxes.

“This is insane,” he said during his press conference. “That’s why I’m announcing today I will cut the federal government’s budget for consultants by $10 billion, bringing it back to the level it was under (former Conservative prime minister) Stephen Harper.”

With only one week to go in the campaign, Poilievre has been pounding the message that a re-elected Liberal government will add trillions of new inflationary debt that will drive up costs for consumers and that only a change in government will prevent that scenario.

Last year, the federal government spent $20.8 billion on “professional and special services” according to public accounts. A compilation from the Globe and Mail found that 85 per cent of that amount — $17.8 billion — was outsourced to companies.

That occurred despite the government pledging in budget 2023 to reduce spending on professional services, particularly management consulting, by roughly 15 per cent.

The federal government was spending $8.4 billion in 2015, the year former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government first took power, but that amount rapidly ballooned during and after the pandemic when public servants were putting in place new programs at a rapid pace.

For years, Conservatives have been critical of the federal public service’s reliance on outside consultants which they say were to blame for the extra millions spent for the runaway costs of the ArriveCAN travel-document app during the pandemic.

At the same time, Poilievre — who represents Carleton, an Ottawa riding where many bureaucrats reside — has also vowed to shrink the public service. His party clarified that attrition through voluntary retirements and resignations would ensure that federal bureaucracy would be reduced by 17,000 jobs per year.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s platform, unveiled Saturday and promising nearly $130 billion in new spending, is committing to “significantly reducing reliance on external consultants, while improving the capacity of the public service to hire expertise in-house.”