Canadian Heritage’s 2024-25 Departmental Plan

Key Priorities

Aligned with government-wide priorities and the Ministers’ mandate letter commitments:

• The Department will continue advancing legislation and regulation to safeguard Canada’s creative content and stay current with industry trends in copyright, broadcasting, online news, and foreign investment. The Department will also work toward modernizing the audiovisual sector policy framework to ensure that its policies, institutions and funding tools are responsive to contemporary issues and needs.
• Canadian Heritage will continue to support the Canadian sport system and advocate for the promotion of safety in sport and foster sporting environments that are free from maltreatment and grounded in ethics.
• The Department will launch a new Anti-Racism Strategy, supporting Indigenous Peoples, Black, racialized and religious minority communities, and Canada’s new Action Plan on Combatting Hate, advancing initiatives to support Indigenous, Black and other racialized, ethno-religious minority, 2SLGBTQI+ communities and persons with disabilities.
• Canadian Heritage will continue to raise understanding and awareness of human rights by managing federal, provincial and territorial consultations and coordination on human rights issues, by managing the reporting process for Canada’s implementation of international human rights obligations, and by promoting human rights instruments through the dissemination of information via numerous channels including social media.
• The Department will continue implementing the Indigenous Languages Act, with a particular focus on key Indigenous language priorities found in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan.
• The federal Youth Secretariat will continue its efforts to engage youth in Canada and connect them with government policy makers through the Prime Minister’s Youth Council, the interdepartmental Director General’s Committee on Youth, in-person and virtual engagement sessions, and an online tool that will be implemented in support of the development of the second State of Youth Report, to be published in 2025.
• Canadian Heritage will continue its work to achieve the substantive equality of English and French in Canadian society. To this end, the Department will continue to implement the modernized Official Languages Act and related instruments, as well as the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028: Protection-Promotion-Collaboration.
• Canadian Heritage will continue to advance the many facets of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) department-wide through its IDEA Office, continuing efforts to make the Department a more accessible and inclusive employer and service provider, and promoting leadership accountability for inclusivity and to foster a healthy and inclusive work environment.
• As part of the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Canadian Heritage will engage with Indigenous governing bodies, organizations and communities to advance federal services in Indigenous languages, arts, music and heritage repatriation through culturally appropriate programs.

Refocusing Government Spending

Budget 2023 included a commitment to bring the growth of government spending back to a pre-pandemic path and asked federal institutions to identify savings through the reallocation of contracting, other professional services and travel expenditures, as well as through a review of programs and operations.Coupled with global economic precarity, there have been more demands on departmental programs. Working with the ministers it supports, Canadian Heritage used the Refocusing Government Spending exercise as an opportunity to ensure public funds are being spent in the areas most aligned with the Department’s core mission and activities that deliver the most impact in arts and culture, heritage, Indigenous languages, safe sport, strengthening official languages, and combatting racism and hate.Canadian Heritage will move forward with plans to realize $64.0 million in savings by 2026–27 across its Grants and Contributions programs and reduce operational spending by $15.2 million through operational efficiencies and further prioritizing travel and professional services needs throughout the organization, across its core responsibilities and internal services (outlined below).

• 2024–25: $14,369,375
• 2025–26: $25,161,954
• 2026–27 and after: $39,671,151

The reductions will realize savings over the course of several years in a way that is sustainable, minimizes future delivery and program integrity pressures and reduces overall impacts on sectors and Canadians.In identifying the reductions, the Department minimized the scope of impacts by targeting specific grants and contributions programs, listed below, based on considerations such as efficiency and results. Targeted reductions will be implemented across four core responsibilities within the Department.

Core responsibility 1: Creativity, arts and culture

The following will be eliminated:

• Canada Periodical Fund – Business Innovation component
• Canada Cultural Investment Fund – Strategic Initiatives component

The following will be reduced:

• Canada Cultural Investment Fund – Endowment Incentives component
• Canada Cultural Spaces Fund

Core responsibility 2: Heritage and celebration

The following will be reduced:

• Museums Assistance Program – Digital Access to Heritage component

Core responsibility 3: Sport

The following will be reduced:

• Sport Support Program

Core responsibility 4: Diversity and inclusion

The following will be eliminated:

• Exchanges Canada Program – Encounters with Canada

The following will be reduced:

• Indigenous Languages and Cultures Program (unallocated funds to the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages)

Internal services

The Department will also implement efficiencies and further prioritize travel and professional services needs throughout the organization to reduce operating spending.

Key risks

Canadian Heritage will face risks in implementing spending reductions in 2024–25 and subsequent years. The Refocusing Government Spending exercise will impact the level of funding available to recipients in targeted programming areas and could strain departmental capacity as well as the capacity of some delivery partners.The Department aims to mitigate these risks by supporting recipients through active communication intended to help them understand changes in impacted programs and funding processes, and highlighting alternative measures or funding mechanisms available where applicable. The risk to departmental capacity to deliver will be managed through robust governance and oversight of both risk-based financial management strategies and implementation of departmental spending reduction plans.

Highlights

A Departmental Results Framework consists of an organization’s core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.