Government spends $19 billion on external services, despite vow to trim spending

OTTAWA — Government records show the federal government spent 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 Liberals have been criticized for years over how much they spend on outside consulting. A lot of that criticism comes from public service unions who say the work should be done by government employees.

The government was criticized over the cost of the ArriveCan app project, launched in April 2020 as a means to track health and contact information for people entering Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Auditor General Karen Hogan reported last year that poor record-keeping and reliance on outside contractors allowed the cost of the ArriveCAN project to balloon to almost $60 million. The first ArriveCAN contract was valued initially at just $2.35 million.

The government’s public accounts show it spent $11 billion on external professional and special services in 2019-20.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2025.