Federal executives received over $200 million in bonuses despite missing half of targets
Government senior staff were awarded $201.5 million in various bonuses in 2025 even though federal departments only achieved 54 % of their performance goals.
An access-to-information request by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation revealed that 15,898 of 18,041 senior federal employees received some form of bonus in 2025, amounting to $201.5 million. The payouts comprised a $4 million bilingual bonus for 6,902 staff, $172 million in at-risk pay for 9,173 workers, and $24 million in performance awards for 1,618 executives. Meanwhile, official performance data show that federal departments fulfilled only 54 % of their targets in the 2024-25 period, a modest rise from previous years.
Federation Federal Director Franco Terrazzano criticised the practice, urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to end what he described as an entitlement culture. The report also notes that Canada Post paid $30.8 million in management bonuses despite a $1.57 billion loss, and that Alto high-speed rail executives received more than $2 million in bonuses while construction has not yet begun.
Why it matters
Taxpayers fund large bonuses for officials whose departments are under-performing, raising questions about public-sector accountability.
In this story