Federal spending on consultants will jump 13 percent this year as the Liberal government intends to pay more for their services, according to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).
“The Government is proposing to raise planned spending on professional & special services to $19.5 billion, an increase of $2.2 billion (13 percent) from last year’s Main Estimates,” said the report, titled “The Government’s Expenditure Plan and Main Estimates for 2023–24.”
Included within “Professional & Special Services” are 14 categories, of which the three largest areas of spending are engineering and architectural services, business services, and health and welfare services, said the report, published on March 3….