Federal workforce in the Ottawa area continues to grow

The National Capital Region's federal public service ranks grew by 8,360 people over the most recent fiscal year to sit at 130,611 workers as of the end of March 2023, according to an annual report.

The federal government is the top employer in the capital region, which has a population of about 1.5 million between Ottawa-Gatineau and other nearby communities such as Almonte, Chelsea, Pakenham and Val-des-Monts.

They're 47.6 per cent of the country's 274,219 workers covered by the Public Service Employment Act, including students and casual staff. That share of Ottawa-area workers has edged up four of the last five years.

Overall, the national civil servant workforce grew by more than 16,600 people in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to the Public Service Commission of Canada's report.

If you just look at hires, 71,200 people were brought in from outside the public service in 2022-23, up about 10 per cent or 6,400 hires from the year prior.

The report notes Indigenous people and people with disabilities were underrepresented in its applicant pool. This was before changes in July 2023 that try to create "a more inclusive and diverse public service" by removing barriers in the hiring process.

A few days before the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the federal budget included cutting $15.4 billion in spending over five years through "targeted reductions."

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre has long been telling voters he'll run a smaller, more limited government.