This study presents information about the size of government in Canada by accounting for the number of Canadians who are paid by governments as civil servants and beneficiaries of social insurance programs. It supplements the annual Tax Freedom Day studies published by The Fraser Institute to track the size of Canadian governments and the fiscal burdens they impose on Canadians.

It is important to track the number of recipients of government pay because these people offer politicians ready opportunities to court votes by promising more public sector employment and more generous unemployment, welfare, and retirement benefits. These political incentives lead to the expectation that the numbers of Canadians paid by government are likely to grow through time.