The federal government paid an outside contractor more than $12,000 to help write Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s 2025 budget speech, even though the Department of Finance already employs a small army of taxpayer-funded communications staff.

According to records reviewed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the finance department spent $12,168 on a “speechwriting contract” tied to Champagne’s Nov. 4, 2025 budget address.

That’s despite repeated promises from Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government to reduce reliance on outside consultants and contractors.

“Why are taxpayers paying so much money for communications bureaucrats if we’re then forced to pay thousands getting outside help to do their homework?” asked Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF.

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“If Winston Churchill found time to write speeches while fighting the Nazis, it’s a good bet Champagne can find some time to write his own speeches.”

The irony is hard to miss.

The finance department already employs 23 communications staff, including a press secretary, communications director, communications manager, multiple communications officers and advisors, correspondence analysts, strategists — and even a dedicated “legislative speech writer.”

Combined, those positions cost taxpayers an estimated $2 million annually in salaries.

Yet taxpayers still got billed another $12,000 to outsource one of the finance minister’s core responsibilities: delivering the federal budget.

Champagne’s speech itself lasted roughly an hour, including applause breaks from Liberal MPs. That works out to about $200 per minute for outsourced writing help alone.

Meanwhile, during that same hour-long speech, the federal debt reportedly increased by $7.6 million, as Ottawa borrowed another $67 billion in 2025-26.

The outsourcing contract also directly contradicts the government’s own messaging.

The budget itself promised to limit spending on “external consultants,” while Carney publicly pledged his government would be “significantly reducing reliance on external consultants.”

Instead, federal spending on consultants, contractors and outsourcing is projected to climb to nearly $27 billion in 2026, while the cost of the federal bureaucracy is increasing another five per cent this year according to the Main Estimates.

“Taxpayers are sick and tired of hearing politicians promise to spend less while they continue to spend more,” Terrazzano said.

“Either we get rid of the bureaucrats or we get rid of the contractors because taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for both to do the same thing.”