Briefing materials for the Minister of Jobs and Families, March 2025

Service Canada in-person service network

Service Canada centres provide a wide range of services, with many locations offering passport services.

Canadians can access Service Canada in-person service network across the country at 317 Service Canada centres, 249 scheduled outreach sites, 19 passport service sites, and 15 service delivery partner sites.

• Western Canada and Territories have 98 Service Canada centres, 128 scheduled outreach sites, 5 passport services sites, and 15 service delivery partner sites
• Ontario has 87 Service Canada centres, 75 scheduled outreach sites, and 10 passport service sites
• Quebec has 75 Service Canada centres, 18 scheduled outreach sites, and 4 passport service sites
• Atlantic has 57 Service Canada centres and 28 scheduled outreach sites

Canada Child Benefit

The Canada Child Benefit is a program led by other federal departments, with support from ESDC, to help with the cost of raising children. In fiscal year 2023 to 2024, 3.5 million families received this benefit and $26.3 billion in payments were issued.

Source: Data shared by the Department of Finance.

Canada Learning Bond and Canada Education Savings Grant

The Canada Learning Bond and Canada Education Savings Grant are ESDC statutory programs, to encourage and support saving for children's post-secondary education. In the 2023 calendar year, 701,000 children received $167 million in payments for the Canada Learning Bond; and 3.1 million children received $1.1 billion in payments for the Canada Education Savings Grant.

Source: ESDC Departmental Results Report for fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

Early Learning and Child Care

The Early Learning and Child Care program is a non-statutory program led by ESDC, to help parents return to the workforce by providing affordable child care. Over 250,000 child care spaces will be created by March 2026. In the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, $6.2 billion in transfer payments were made

Source: ESDC Departmental Results Report for fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

National School Food Program

The National School Food Program is a non-statutory program led by ESDC to improve access to nutritious food and help children learn. Up to 400,000 more children will receive meals every year. There will be a $1 billion investment over 5 years, starting in the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year.

Source: Healthy Meals for up to 400,000 more kids - Canada.ca.

Canada Student Grants and Canada Student Loans

Canada Student Grants and Loans are ESDC statutory programs to support post-secondary students to fund their education. In the academic year of August 2023 to July 2024, over 728,000 students received Canada student grants and loans, totalling $7.5 billion, of which $4.8 billion in interest-free loans must be repaid in the future.

Source: Canada Student Financial Assistance Program statistics 2023 to 2024

Canada Workers Benefit

The Canada Workers Benefit is a tax credit to help low-income workers make ends meet. It is led by other federal departments, with support from ESDC. In the 2023 calendar year, there were 2.8 million recipients of the Canada Workers Benefit, who received $4.4 billion.

Source: Data shared by the Department of Finance.

Employment Insurance

Employment Insurance is a statutory program of ESDC, providing a safety net for job loss, and support through work leave for illness, pregnancy, and caring for family. In the fiscal year 2023 to 2024, there were 2.0 million new claims and $21.0 billion net payments were issued.

Source: Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report 2023 to 2024.

Labour Market Development Agreements

Labour Market Development Agreements is an ESDC statutory program, which supports individuals eligible for Employment Insurance to gain skills and work experience. In the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, $2.6 billion was issued for training via provincial and territorial (PT) networks.

Source: Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report 2023 to 2024.

Workforce Development Agreements

Workforce Development Agreements is a non-statutory program led by ESDC to provide skills and training supports for individuals not eligible for Employment Insurance. In the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, $922 million was issued for training via the provincial and territorial networks.

Source: ESDC Departmental Results Report for fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

Canada Pension Plan

The Canada Pension Plan is an ESDC statutory program to ensure that workers receive a pension in retirement. This program is funded by employee and employer contributions. In the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, 6.6 million average monthly Canada Pension Plan recipients received $60.8 billion in benefits, including Canada Pension Plan retirement, disability, child, survivor, death, and post-retirement benefits.

Source: Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security: Annual Statistics Tables - Net Payments.

Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement

Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement are ESDC statutory programs, which provide government-funded income support to seniors. In the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, there were 7.3 million average monthly Old Age Security beneficiaries, who received $57.4 billion in net payments, and 2.5 million average monthly Guaranteed Income Supplement beneficiaries who received $18.6 billion in net payments and allowance.

Source: Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security: Annual Statistics Tables - Net Payments.

Canada Disability Benefit

The Canada Disability Benefit is an ESDC statutory program to support low and modest-income working-age persons with disabilities. This program will provide up to $200 per month in financial support.

Source: Canada Disability Benefit - Canada.ca.

Canada Disability Savings Program

The Canada Disability Savings Program is an ESDC statutory program, which encourages and supports people with disabilities to save for the future. As of December 2023, there were 282,000 active registered disability savings plans. There were $684 million in grants and bonds provided in the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year.

Sources: Government of Canada InfoBase - Infographic for Canada Disability Savings Program; Canada Disability Savings Program 2023 Annual Report.

Voted Grants and Contributions

Voted Grants and Contributions are non-statutory programs led and delivered by ESDC. They include funding programs for jobs, training and social development projects. In the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year, $600 million in grants and contributions payments were issued for social development, and $2.1 billion in grants and contributions payments were issued for learning, skills development, employment and labour.

Examples of ESDC grants and contributions programs include:

• Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy
• Canada Summer Jobs
• New Horizons for Seniors Program

Source: ESDC Departmental Results Report for fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

Online

List of services offered online:

• My Service Canada account
• passport renewals
• Social Insurance Number application
• Employment Insurance application
• Canadian Dental Care Plan application

Note: Online passport renewal applications are being gradually rolled out since late 2024.

More than 5.6 million Canadians have a My Service Canada account as of September 2024.

Source: The State of Service report 2025.

By phone

List of services offered by phone:

• 1 800 O-Canada
• direct phone services for Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, Social Insurance Number program, Employment Insurance, Record of Employment and Employers Hiring Foreign Workers.

In fiscal year 2023to 2024, Specialized call centre agents answered over 10 million calls.

Note: Specialized call centers include call centres for Employment Insurance, pensions, the Employer Contact centre, Social Insurance Number, and registration and authentication.

In-person

There are 600 points of service across the country:

• 317 Service Canada centres
• 249 scheduled outreach sites
• 19 passport services sites
• 15 service delivery partner sites

In-person sites offer Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, Employment Insurance, Social Insurance Number, passport services, general information, and more.

In fiscal year 2023 to 2024, the in-person service network handled 10.7 million service requests, and 97% of Canadians had access to services within 50km of their home.

Source: ESDC Departmental Results Report 2023 to 2024.

Diagram 1: A bar chart of the percentage of clients who used each channel for fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

Notes Diagram 1:

• clients were asked to identify all the channels used throughout their client journey
• clients use eService Canada to request assistance online, and an agent will call them to provide support

Source Diagram 1: Service Canada Client Experience Survey 2023 to 2024

Canada.ca

Service Canada manages Canada.ca, the digital presence of the Government of Canada, which received over 1.3 billion visits in fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

Online applications

Several initiatives were launched for a seamless digital experience.

• Online passport renewals have been gradually rolled out since late 2024 and will be available to all eligible Canadians in 2025
• Social Insurance Number at entry will be an integrated and automated bundle of immigration and Social Insurance Number services, expected to reduce wait times in many Service Canada offices by 50% or more

New modern tools

Several initiatives were launched to help Canadians understand their benefits and track service status.

• The passport application status checker received over 6.8 million visits between April 1, 2024 and January 26, 2025
• The Employment Insurance Benefits Estimator processes around 4,500 transactions per day
• Life event hubs on Canada.ca provide easy access to key government information and services for major life events (Retirement hub, What to do when someone dies hub and Welcoming a child hub)

Automation and artificial intelligence

Several initiatives were launched to improve efficiency and service experience.

• Nearly 100 artificial intelligence or intelligent automation solutions are in various stages of progress
• Automated passport processing now handles around 75% of all renewal applications
• Employment Insurance claims were triaged using machine learning, with 40,000 claims triaged in fiscal year 2023 to 2024 resulting in approximately $2.6 million in savings
• Automatic processing for online Social Insurance Number applications will be rolled out in fall 2025, reducing wait times from 5 days to 5 minutes

The impact on passport services

Several of the improvements to the passport program were introduced to manage increased demand following the pandemic.

Diagram 2: Line chart of the number of issued passports by fiscal year, from fiscal year 2018 to 2019 to fiscal year 2024 to 2025. The chart shows a reduction in the number of passports issued from 2018 to 2019 to 2020 to 2021, reaching the lowest level at 400,000 passports in 2020 to 2021. This is followed by an increase in the number of passports issued each subsequent year, leading to surpassing pre-pandemic volumes starting from the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year onward.

92% of passport applications were issued within service standards despite record volume in fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

Source: The State of Service Report 2025.

Canadian digital service

The Canadian digital service joined with Service Canada to advance user-centred digital solutions, such as single sign-on and digital credentials, which will enable users to quickly and securely access services online.

Old Age Security on Benefits Delivery Modernization

Old Age Security is the largest statutory benefits program offered by the Government of Canada. In fiscal year 2023 to 2024, there were

• $76 billion in net payments
• 7.3 million average monthly Old Age Security beneficiaries

The Old Age Security on Benefits Delivery Modernization initiative will launch a new, modern benefits payment system in March or April 2025. This system will streamline the entire benefit process, from client intake to payment, for both Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement, and impact over 6,600 employees.

Sources: ESDC Departmental Results Report for fiscal year 2023 to 2024; Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security: Annual Statistics Tables, Number of benefits, by benefit type and fiscal year.

Programme costs and benefits

• The initial estimated cost in 2017 was $1.8 billion
• The cumulative cost, as of March 2025, is $1.4 billion
• The approved funding over the project lifetime is $6.6 billion. Note: this figure represents the lifetime approved funding of the Benefits Delivery Modernization Programme, which continues to be refined as scope, timing, and outside factors are assessed. It excludes workload and mandatory maintenance, as they are not part of the programme approval
• The estimated total benefit payout to Canadians over the 10-year life of the Programme is over $1.5 trillion

Identity Services and Access Management solution

The Identity Services and Access Management solution aims to replace the outdated Enterprise Cyber-Authentication solution with a modern identity authentication service for Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance clients. This solution will:

• enable clients to receive services across multiple programs in a single view
• allow Service Officers to support cross-program queries
• enable clients to request cross-program changes of circumstances ("Tell us once")

Contact centre solution

The Contact centre solution currently supports millions of Canadians. In fiscal year 2023 to 2024, there were:

• 27 million calls to the Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance call centres
• 501 thousand calls to the Employer Contact Centre

Note: the Employer Contact Centre provides support for various employer-related programs and services.

ESDC is partnering with Shared Services Canada to procure a new Contact Centre as a Service solution by 2027, in alignment with the Government of Canada's cloud-first approach.

Systems features

The new systems leverage cloud computing technology for scalability, as well as integrate artificial intelligence and automation for quicker decision-making. The following key features will be incorporated over time:

• self-service: Independent access to online services
• user-friendly digital interface
• "tell us once": Information is shared across services
• real-time application tracking
• single sign-in: One account for all services
• "no wrong door": Improved omnichannel integration