Canadian Heritage’s 2025-26 Departmental plan: At a glance

Key priorities

Canadian Heritage’s top priorities for 2025–26 are as follows:

• Advance work to address online safety and harmful content for safer and more inclusive online participation.
• Continue to support the national public broadcaster to ensure it continues to create public value for Canadians.
• Continue work to update Canada’s copyright framework to address emerging challenges.
• Continue to support the Canadian sport system and promote sport integrity.
• Implement Changing Systems, Transforming Lives: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2024–2028 and Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate to ensure that communities have access to resources, while raising awareness of racism and hate. This work will ensure support to Indigenous, Black, racialized and ethnoreligious minority communities, 2SLGBTQI+ communities, women and persons with disabilities.
• Invest in the new National Holocaust Remembrance Program for initiatives to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and help improve Canadians’ understanding and awareness of the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism in all its forms.
• Continue to implement the Indigenous Languages Act and to support the efforts of Indigenous communities and Indigenous organizations to reclaim, revitalize, maintain and strengthen Indigenous languages.
• Continue implementing the modernized Official Languages Act and the associated measures, including the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act and the administrative monetary penalties regime. The Department will also continue implementing the initiatives in Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028: Protection–Promotion–Collaboration.

Highlights

In 2025–26, total planned spending (including internal services) for Canadian Heritage is $2,095,587,968 and total planned full-time equivalent staff (including internal services) is 2,013. For complete information on Canadian Heritage’s total planned spending and human resources, read the Planned spending and human resources section of the full plan.

The following provides a summary of the Department’s planned achievements for 2025–26 according to its approved Departmental Results Framework. A Departmental Results Framework identifies a department’s core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress towards these results.

Core responsibility 1: Creativity, arts and culture

Planned spending: $623,115,448

Planned human resources: 423

Departmental results

• Canadians are able to consume Canadian content on multiple platforms.
• Professional arts experiences are available to Canadians in their community
• Creative industries are successful in the digital economy, foster creativity and contribute to economic growth.
• Creative industries are successful in global markets.
• Canadians are better equipped to counter the effects of online disinformation.

The Department will advance work to address online safety and harmful content for safer and more inclusive online participation, monitor the implementation of the Online News Act and the Online Streaming Act, advance work to update Canada’s copyright framework, and explore the impact of artificial intelligence on the cultural sector.

Canadian Heritage will continue to help Canadian creative industries maximize their export potential and stand out in the global market. It will also continue to support cultural industries through grants and contributions that ensure a wide range of Canadian content is produced across a variety of media, while encouraging sustainable practices and partnerships.

The Department will enhance Canadian engagement with the arts by connecting cultural organizations with their communities and supporting high-quality training for artists. It will promote professional arts festivals, improve cultural infrastructure, and encourage access and resilience in the arts.

More information about Core responsibility 1: Creativity, arts and culture can be found in the full plan.

Core responsibility 2: Heritage and celebration

Planned spending: $142,820,992

Planned human resources: 327

Departmental results

• Canadians are increasingly engaged in celebrations and commemorations of national significance.
• Canadians across the country are provided regular opportunities to engage in their communities through local arts and heritage activities.
• The public is provided with access to cultural heritage.
• Heritage objects and collections are preserved by heritage organizations for current and future generations.

The Department will plan activities and partner with collaborators to highlight the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Canadian Flag and the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. Additionally, Canadian Heritage will continue to work with collaborators to deliver activities and animate the core area of Canada’s Capital Region, including through major events in the Capital such as Winterlude and Canada Day, and through the new Ottawa Visitor Centre.

Canadian Heritage will continue to support the development of important national monuments, notably the Indian Residential Schools National Monument, in collaboration with the Survivor-led Steering Committee, which will continue to oversee the project. The Department, on behalf of the LGBT Purge Fund, will also continue to oversee the development of Thunderhead, the 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument. Meanwhile, the review and renewal of the interpretive exhibit and descriptive texts at the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa will also be taking place in 2025–26.

Canadian Heritage, through the Building Communities through Arts and Heritage program, will continue to encourage community engagement by providing financial support for local performances and visual arts, and the celebration of local heritage, and for the commemoration and preservation of local history and identity.

In support of public access to cultural heritage, Canadian Heritage will continue working on the renewal of the Museum Policy and continue to prioritize reconciliation through repatriation, particularly with respect to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UNDA) Action Plan measure 98.

The Canadian Conservation Institute will make online resources available to help heritage institutions rethink their current energy consumption.

Canadian Heritage will continue its efforts to ensure that people in Canada are exposed to knowledge about Canada’s history, civic education and public policy through the Canada History Fund, such as supporting the Moccasin Identifier, an Indigenous-led organization that aims to have people in Canada understand their treaty responsibilities and Indigenous relationship to land.

More information about Core responsibility 2: Heritage and celebration can be found in the full plan.

Core responsibility 3: Sport

Planned spending: $322,938,029

Planned human resources: 136

Departmental results

• Canadian athletes succeed at the highest levels of competition.
• Canadian children and youth are enrolled in a sport activity.
• Canadians, regardless of gender, physical ability and cultural background, who participate in sport activities are satisfied with the manner in which the activity is provided.

The Department will support the endorsement and launch of the renewed Canadian Sport Policy that provides federal, provincial and territorial governments with sport priorities for the next 10 years, including increasing sport program accessibility and participation for all, and fostering healthy, safe and welcoming sport experiences and environments.

Canadian Heritage will continue to support Canada’s safe sport program, which is responsible for administering the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport and managing an independent complaint process.

The Department will support National Sport Organizations, national Multisport Services Organizations, and other federally incorporated not-for-profit organizations delivering sport through project-based funding to organizations to improve inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. The purpose of the funding is to expand participation for underrepresented populations and to develop approaches to make sport environments safer and more welcoming to diverse populations.

Canadian Heritage will continue to support Canadian participation at international sporting events, especially as Canadian teams are preparing for international competitions, including the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the 2026 Arctic Winter Games, the 2026 Commonwealth Games, and the 2027 Pan American Games. Meanwhile, the Department is also preparing to host major sport events by working with franchise holders and other stakeholders to plan for and prepare to host international single sport events, the FIFA Men’s World Cup 2026, and the St. John’s 2025 Canada Games and Québec 2027 Canada Winter Games.

Canadian Heritage will also support the independent operations of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission in its review of the Canadian sport system, through a trauma-informed approach to consultations, and in its recommendations to improve safe sport and the sport system in Canada.

More information about Core responsibility 3: Sport can be found in the full plan.

Core responsibility 4: Diversity and inclusion

Planned spending: $281,665,906

Planned human resources: 246

Departmental results

• Canadians value diversity.
• Canadians value human rights.
• Individuals or groups have access to funding to initiate or participate in test cases pertaining to rights and freedoms covered by the Court Challenges Program.
• Increase in the use of Indigenous languages.
• Youth enhance their appreciation of the diversity and shared aspects of the Canadian experience.

Canadian Heritage will continue to support the priorities and objectives of Changing Systems, Transforming Lives: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2024–2028, Canada’s Action Plan to Combat Hate, the office of Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism and the office of Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia.

The Department’s investments in the new National Holocaust Remembrance Program will support initiatives that seek to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and improve Canadians’ understanding and awareness of the Holocaust and of contemporary antisemitism in all its forms.

The Department will continue to provide funding for community-based projects through the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program to ensure that Indigenous peoples and Black, racialized and ethnoreligious communities have access to resources that support their full participation in Canadian society and the economy, while also raising awareness of issues related to racism and hate. The Department will also continue to commemorate Black History Month and Asian Heritage Month by supporting events and activities to highlight the histories, contributions, and achievements of Black and Asian, communities in Canada.

The Department will coordinate federal, provincial and territorial efforts on reporting to the United Nations on Canada’s international human rights obligations and appearances before United Nations human rights treaty bodies. The Human Rights Program will increase awareness across the federal government about recommendations received from the United Nations on implementation of Canada’s obligations to help inform decision-making and follow-up, including through new formalized processes. The Program also conducts engagement sessions with partners and stakeholders on Canada’s human rights reporting.

The Department will carry on its work with Indigenous partners to implement the Indigenous Languages Act, notably to continue the implementation of distinctions-based funding models that are more responsive to the unique needs of First Nations, Inuit and Métis, advance the work on access to federal services in Indigenous languages and initiate the independent review of the Indigenous Languages Act.

Canadian Heritage will continue to provide funding to strengthen youth attachment to Canada through the Exchanges Canada program and Youth Take Charge program. The Department will adopt measures to advance administrative efficiency in both programs and continue to work towards the modernization of the Exchanges Canada program.

The Youth Secretariat will amplify youth voices so that youth-identified priorities are captured in the second State of Youth Report and will continue to encourage and support departments and agencies in integrating a youth lens in policy and program design. The Youth Secretariat will achieve these objectives by engaging youth in the development of the second State of Youth Report, and by continuing to support the Prime Minister’s Youth Council.

More information about Core responsibility 4: Diversity and inclusion can be found in the full plan.

Core responsibility 5: Official languages

Planned spending: $632,213,812

Planned human resources: 173

Departmental results

• Canadians recognize and support Canada’s official languages.

Following the royal assent of the Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada’s Official Languages, modernizing the Official Languages Act, the Department will continue its regulatory work associated with the implementation of the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act and the establishment of an administrative monetary penalties regime under the Official Languages Act.

Canadian Heritage will continue to implement Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028 and its initiatives, including its Official Languages Support Programs, with federal partners and community organizations.

The Department will continue implementing the bilateral agreements on official languages with the provincial and territorial governments for first- and second-language education, and for services.

More information about Core responsibility 5: Official languages can be found in the full plan.