Shared Services Canada 2026–27 Departmental Plan

The Government of Canada delivers effective, efficient and innovative digital services and operations, enabled through digital tools and services so GC workers can effectively communicate, collaborate and deliver services to Canadians.

SSC provides GC Workers with a core suite of digital tools to deliver a secure and consistent experience that is modern, accessible, and secure. It includes products that enable seamless communication, collaboration and mobility between work environments and organizations. The suite of digital tools is accessible anytime, anywhere, from any government-issued device. These tools enhance productivity and collaboration among employees and when interacting with Canadians and businesses.

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, AI has emerged as a transformative force, offering unprecedented opportunities to enhance productivity and improve services across various sectors. Recognising its transformative potential, SSC is facilitating AI adoption across government to enhance productivity and improve services, leading to more efficient and effective outcomes.

Results we plan to achieve

Enterprise Desktop Solution (EDS)

Desktop computers and other digital tools, such as laptops and tablets, that workers use are currently managed by federal organizations independently, with each organization managing their own engineering, assets, and support services. This fragmented desktop environment results in inconsistent end-user experiences and accessibility issues across the enterprise; redundant procurement, asset management, and support structures; increased cybersecurity risk; and impacted worker mobility between departments, as devices and configurations are not portable.

With EDS, SSC will unify and modernize desktop management for the federal government and will deliver a seamless, consistent user experience. The initiative will drive transformational change in how desktop services are delivered across the enterprise. This standardized, cloud-managed desktop service is part of SSC’s ongoing modernization efforts which will enable enhanced collaboration and will ensure that all public servants have reliable, modern devices to do their jobs. The centralized delivery of desktop services will reduce duplication, lower costs, and improve cybersecurity while ensuring a consistent user experience across departments. EDS supports worker mobility, enhance security posture, and enables collaboration across the Federal Government.

In 2026-27, SSC will proceed with a phased, proof-of-concept approach and will onboard up to 10 initial partners to EDS. This will allow SSC to validate the model, demonstrate benefits, and refine processes before expanding enterprise wide.

Telephony Elimination and Modernization (TEaM)

Telecommunication technology has changed significantly, moving beyond traditional fixed lines. To keep pace, SSC is modernizing voice communication to allow public servants, including those working abroad, to communicate more efficiently and securely while reducing reliance on outdated phone systems. By replacing older, legacy technologies with a modern solution, the GC can lower costs, improve service reliability, and better protect sensitive information.

SSC has launched the TEaM initiative that will deploy internet based softphone solutions to all GC users. This initiative will confirm essential fixed lines and decommission non-essential fixed lines, and reduce the number of mobile devices in use across the Federal Government.

In 2026-27, SSC will complete softphone deployments to all Federal Government workers, eliminate an additional 100K fixed lines and target a 50% reduction in the number of mobile devices across the Federal Government.

Protected B Secure Communications and Collaboration

SSC provides telephony services for the Federal Government, including the secure messaging software for mobile devices that allow users to communicate and share sensitive information across departments. As part of this initiative, SSC plans to expand an existing Protected B secure messaging and collaboration solution to approximately 50,000 government-issued devices, beginning with priority departments in 2026-27.

This initiative will strengthen Canada’s digital sovereignty, increase diversification of services, enhance the security of government communications, and ensure continuity of operations in the event of service disruptions. In addition, it will reduce reliance on foreign-hosted cloud services for sensitive communications.

Generative AI Solutions

Departments across the Federal Government are experimenting with AI tools and developing AI-related initiatives to find new, more efficient ways to deliver services. As the provider of common IT infrastructure, SSC is centrally procuring and testing off-the-shelf, office productivity generative AI tools for use by departments across government to automate and streamline common administrative and operational tasks. The adoption of common tools will facilitate shared learning and best practices and avoid duplication of efforts. SSC will be establishing procurement vehicles and conducting trials to identify which generative AI tools deliver the greatest value and impact across departments. These will also allow SSC to leverage its buying power by acquiring common application licences across the Federal Government, ensuring both consistency and interoperability, as well as reducing costs.

CANChat

CANChat is an in-house generative AI capability and advanced chatbot designed to assist employees with tasks such as research, content creation, translation and data retrieval. Recognizing the importance of data security and privacy in government operations, CANChat provides a government-controlled alternative to commercial generative AI tools, powered by sovereign models and secured infrastructure. Additionally, a secure web search capability will be established, enabling users to incorporate Internet data sources directly from the prompt, thereby enhancing CANChat’s utility and versatility. SSC is driving responsible AI adoption by incorporating various guardrails and safeguards within CANChat to protect user data and build trust in AI as a transformative technology for assisting workers.

In 2026-27, SSC will transition the CANChat pilot into an enterprise service, serving the entire GC with enhanced AI capabilities and common enterprise AI tools. This includes establishing a Protected B enterprise-level generative AI capability to ensure robust protection and specialized functionality tailored for government operations. SSC will also explore the integration of agentic AI capabilities resulting in a more intelligent and proactive assistant that enhances task support and efficiency.

The Government of Canada delivers effective, efficient and innovative digital services and operations, enabled through modern, secure and reliable hybrid hosting that empowers government to deliver exceptional services.

SSC provides the IT infrastructure departments and agencies need to store data, run applications, and use high-performance computing to deliver services to Canadians. SSC is strengthening its hosting ecosystem, making it more reliable, scalable, and secure. SSC has adopted a hybrid hosting model, which combines cloud services and traditional data centres to optimize performance, reduce costs and provide flexible solutions to respond to the evolving digital environment. This model combines on-premises infrastructure with public and private cloud services. This approach supports flexibility and scalability, allowing partners to run workloads where they perform best—for example, sensitive data on-premises and scalable applications in the cloud.

Through its modern IT hosting, cloud adoption strategies, and ongoing efforts to secure data and infrastructure, SSC plays a central role in supporting Canada’s commitment to digital sovereignty by maintaining appropriate control over critical data, systems, and hosting locations. These initiatives ensure that the Government of Canada retains control over critical data and systems, aligns with Canadian laws and values, and meets international obligations while improving resilience and readiness for emerging technologies.

SSC is supporting the development of sovereign AI and compute capabilities to strengthen security and maintain appropriate control over government data within Canadian jurisdiction. SSC is embedding governance and cost management into these AI services so departments can adopt AI safely, scale where needed, and manage ongoing costs while safeguarding Canadian data.

Results we plan to achieve

GC Cloud One

GC Cloud One provides a standardized, secure, ready-to-use cloud environment that allows departments to build, deploy, and operate software applications. It gives developers access to pre-approved public cloud platforms. GC Cloud One simplifies the adoption of cloud technologies across departments by offering managed hosting environments, built-in security controls, and compliance with federal standards. It supports various workloads, including internet-facing applications accessible to Canadians and internal government-facing solutions connected through secure networks and facilities. This reduces overall platform risk within the Federal Government’s cloud hosting ecosystem.

This approach mitigates cloud sprawl by concentrating client environments and workloads on SSC-managed platforms. It reduces duplication across departments by limiting the need for each organization to build and operate its own cloud platform team, while allowing partners to focus on modernizing applications.

SSC is also enhancing cloud-based services while supporting data residency and sovereignty through sovereign cloud hosting. This effort includes work to develop a backup capability aligned with Canadian data residency and sovereignty requirements. An initial proof of concept will establish a disaster recovery backup capability for critical departmental data, ensuring sensitive information remains safeguarded within Canadian jurisdiction. Future efforts will expand the use of Canadian cloud services to strengthen the overall Canadian cloud footprint. By collaborating with Canadian-based cloud service providers, SSC aims to bolster the nation's digital infrastructure and ensure compliance with national data security standards.

Private Cloud

SSC is provisioning dedicated cloud infrastructure for the Federal Government to create a sovereign private cloud environment within Canadian jurisdiction. This service is designed to deliver automation, security, and flexibility, through an iterative approach that balances delivery speed with service stability. It will provide core capabilities such as compute, storage, and networking, with a roadmap to scale and add services over time.

As these services are rolled out, strategic procurements will secure the necessary hardware, ensuring alignment with long-term enterprise needs. Early adopters will be instrumental in validating and refining the service offering, ultimately ensuring a sovereign, secure, and resilient hosting environment tailored to meet the Federal Government’s specific priorities.

Advancing these hybrid cloud options allows SSC to meet changing digital needs, improve collaboration, scalability, security, and cost management while supporting innovation across government departments.

Government of Canada application Platform as a Service (GCaPaaS) / Enterprise Platforms

GCaPaaS is an SSC-managed cloud service that enables federal departments to develop, test, and host common government-wide applications in a secure and scalable environment. It allows multiple departments to use a single platform for common business applications, rather than operating separate platforms. It provides access to standardized versions of enterprise applications, reduces costs, improves interoperability, and helps keep applications consistent and up to date. SSC has used this approach for an enterprise internal audit application and for applications that support access to information requests processing.

In 2026-27, SSC will aim to add 3-5 new applications to the catalogue available to departments on the platform.

Sovereign AI Platform

SSC is putting in place foundational infrastructure and supporting partner-led investments to build secure, scalable AI and high-performance computing capacity that meets Federal Government data residency and security requirements. This work strengthens domestic compute infrastructure and supports production services, including Protected B workloads, within Canadian jurisdiction.

SSC is supporting the National Research Council in upgrading its AI GPU cluster to expand compute and storage capacity and enable a production-grade Protected B environment. SSC is also supporting Public Services and Procurement Canada’s Laboratories Canada initiative through the design of local and edge AI compute capacity at Canadian research complexes where workloads require proximity to instruments and data sources. SSC is working with departments, including Department of National Defense, to advance sovereign AI platform options and determine suitable hosting approaches within enterprise data centres. As SSC transforms its CANChat pilot service into an enterprise-scale Protected B solution for the federal government, it is being implemented on (or deployed onto) a Canadian cloud service provider to ensure complete sovereignty of the data, the AI compute and the intellectual property of the service. The foundational elements built to host CANChat enterprise will be scalable and can be leveraged across a federal government ecosystem to allow SSC to host future AI workloads and offer them as enterprise services to public servants.

To expand sovereign hosting options, SSC is engaging with Canadian vendors to explore increasing Canadian cloud capacity. This work will continue in 2026-27.

High Performance Computing Solutions

SSC provides high performance computing solutions as a critical service to support the advanced computing needs of departments and agencies. These solutions enable researchers, scientists, and data analysts to process and analyze massive datasets, perform complex simulations, and solve computationally intensive problems more efficiently than traditional computing system.

SSC is advancing next-generation supercomputing for Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). In 2026-27, SSC will procure a high performing computing solution to support critical functions and enhance computational capacity and versatility to meet the growing demands, such as weather forecasting and environmental prediction. This project also supports the deployment of renewed AI-integrated models, advancing ECCC's transformation of hydro-meteorological prediction into a data-based AI system. The funding for this work is phased, with long-term planning aligned to operational timelines through 2028 and beyond, ensuring ECCC can continue delivering accurate and timely weather services to Canadians.

The Government of Canada delivers effective, efficient and innovative digital services and operations, enabled through fast, reliable and secure Connectivity services that meet the needs of users, and are available anywhere, anytime, from any authorized device.

SSC has established a modern connectivity service that leverages readily available technologies to meet stringent demands. As network requirements continue to evolve, this service continues to adapt, ensuring a seamless user experience and maintaining expected service levels. By supporting an “anywhere, anytime” work environment, workloads are increasingly shifted closer to end-user devices, facilitating efficient data processing and communications. This shift requires new capabilities that provide low-latency, high-performance connectivity, ensuring seamless access to applications, data, and services.

SSC is committed to supporting remote and underserved areas by enhancing digital infrastructure across various essential services. This includes extending high-speed internet access, improving network reliability, and bolstering cyber security for organizations such as the RCMP and First Nations health services. By modernizing IT systems and adopting scalable, secure technologies, SSC ensures that critical public services are accessible and resilient, meeting the needs of all Canadians, irrespective of their geographical location.

The evolution towards a Zero Trust network architecture will transform how networks and other IT resources are accessed and secured. The skillsets required to manage these services will place a greater emphasis on robust identity-based access management and AI-based automation and decision-making.

Results we plan to achieve

Connectivity

Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN)

Network modernization is designed to optimize connectivity, boost efficiency, and ensure scalability. This involves implementing software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) across numerous sites that will identify the best possible routes for network traffic to improve overall speed and service quality. By leveraging site management efficiencies through multi-tenant setups and vendor-managed partnerships, SSC is effectively managing the growing complexity and resource demands on the network.

In 2026-27, SSC will implement a standardized approach to workplace infrastructure across the Federal Government, procure and install necessary hardware at designated sites, and initiate the onboarding of federal organizations to SD-WAN as soon as foundational elements are ready. These measures are critical in maintaining a robust, secure, and adaptable network infrastructure that meets the ever-increasing demands driven by advancements in AI and Internet of Things telemetry. Achieving network modernization outcomes is crucial to ensure a smooth path forward and support future capabilities such as Zero Trust adoption.

Strengthening Classified Digital Infrastructure

To strengthen classified digital infrastructure, SSC is modernizing the mechanisms through which Federal Government organizations securely share and communicate classified information. By 2026–27, this initiative will encompass the creation of a secure classified cloud environment, a significant enhancement to the existing secret infrastructure, and the launch of an enterprise platform dedicated to secure voice, video, and messaging. These developments will keep sensitive government data within Canada and provide public servants with reliable, cost-effective, and highly available collaboration tools both domestically and internationally. By transitioning departments to modern networks and platforms, SSC aims to protect classified data from cyber threats, reduce reliance on legacy systems, and support efficient, resilient operations across government.

Security

As part of SSC’s commitment to secure the digital landscape and respond to evolving cyber threats, SSC is advancing its security framework through the implementation of Zero Trust principles and a centralized governance model. The Zero Trust approach operates on the fundamental principle of "never trust, always verify." This means every access request, whether it comes from within or outside the network, is subject to continuous verification, authentication, and authorization processes.

Over the past few years, SSC has laid a solid foundation for Zero Trust by implementing key security measures. Moving forward, SSC will enhance these efforts by evolving cyber security architecture and integrating advanced technologies and standards that ensure a resilient and secure environment for all government operations. This strategy is crucial in mitigating risks and protecting sensitive information from sophisticated cyber threats.

To support the effective implementation of Zero Trust, SSC will establish a centralized governance model. This model will ensure consistent enforcement of security policies across all government departments, streamline decision-making processes, and align security initiatives with organizational goals. Centralized governance will facilitate better coordination, transparency, and accountability, which are essential for maintaining a secure digital infrastructure.

Recent findings of the Auditor General have underscored the need for strengthened security measures and governance frameworks. By prioritizing the Zero Trust approach and centralized governance, SSC is addressing these findings and demonstrating dedication to continuous improvement in its security practices.

These commitments are not just about addressing immediate security concerns but are part of a broader strategy to build a robust, resilient, and secure digital ecosystem. SSC's ongoing efforts to strengthen security will support reliable and secure government operations, ensuring compliance, protecting sensitive data, and maintaining public trust in government services.

Attack Surface Management

To further bolster the federal government’s cyber security, SSC will implement Attack Surface Management, a multifaceted initiative that includes vulnerability management to protect internal government systems by identifying and prioritizing weaknesses, and continuous security controls assessment to ensure that security measures are effective through ongoing testing and evaluation.

Endpoint Visibility, Awareness and Security

In the face of increased cyber threats, SSC is improving visibility of all endpoint devices, such as user, desktops, and servers, and allow these devices to be centrally managed and improve the consistency of their security profiles and overall cybersecurity in the federal government. The Endpoint Visibility, Awareness and Security initiative will identify network-connected endpoints and ensure they meet the appropriate security profile, as well as continuously monitoring endpoints and protecting them from malware and malicious activity

In 2026-27, SSC will continue to onboard partner departments to Endpoint Visibility, Awareness and Security.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

The Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution will continue to protect government networks, systems, and data from complex and frequent cyber threats originating both from within and outside. SIEM collects and analyzes security log data in real-time, providing a proactive approach to threat detection and response. By identifying potential security events, alerting security teams, and automating responses, the SIEM solution ensures consistent and effective handling of threats. This strengthens the Federal Government’s ability to protect sensitive systems, maintain service continuity, and prevent disruptions.

In 2026-27, SSC will develop initial capabilities to create a centralized data repository of security logs that can be used to reduce detection time for cyber security events, better prioritize responses and inform mitigation strategies. These initial capabilities will then be expanded for full implementation across the Federal Government over the next two fiscal years.

Post Quantum Cryptography

The future of quantum computers has the potential to transform how people live and work. It also provides a unique security threat. As technology advances, quantum computers of the future will likely be capable of breaking many cryptography systems, including existing public key infrastructure (PKI), thereby threatening the security and privacy of digital systems and data. To ensure that it remains resilient in the face of emerging quantum threats, the Government has published policy guidance on Migrating the Government of Canada to Post-Quantum Cryptography. Post-quantum cryptography will position cryptographic systems to be resistant to attacks from quantum and classical computers. SSC has a critical role in safeguarding the federal government’s information from this future threat.

In 2026-2027, as part of the overarching Government plan, SSC will identify and prioritize changes that will be required to implement enhanced security measures and mitigate this future risk.

The Government of Canada delivers effective, efficient and innovative digital services and operations, enabled through services, projects and advice that support enterprise IT solutions and the delivery of GC programs.

SSC is dedicated to supporting its partner departments through various initiatives that enhance digital infrastructure and services, enabling these departments to fulfill their respective mandates effectively. SSC will continue to work closely with departments and agencies on emerging needs and will modernize its interactions by simplifying the provisioning of SSC services, improving timeliness of service delivery, and enhancing operational excellence through the modernization of its management and operational systems.

Results we plan to achieve

Services for Federal Scientists

Services for federal scientists are a particular area of attention. SSC created the Science Program to support government priorities to modernize and to secure research in Canada. SSC collaborates closely with science-based departments and agencies, as well as Laboratories Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada, to deliver new and enhanced IT solutions and services that support science-based facility optimization objectives, while equipping scientists with the necessary digital tools for their work. SSC also actively supports the Open Science Roadmap, promoting the sharing of data, information, tools, and research results to eliminate barriers to collaboration.

SSC plans to:

• Expand and optimize the Federal Science DataHub to enhance scalable cloud-based storage, strengthen inter-departmental collaboration, and improve access to advanced analytics. Integrating and advancing AI capabilities will drive innovation and support data-driven decision-making across the federal science community.
• Implement AI-powered search within the Federal Open Science Repository of Canada production environment to deliver smarter, more relevant results and support natural-language queries. This initiative aims to maximize the investment in building the AI proof of concept, increasing the visibility of Canadian science and enhancing user experience through advanced search capabilities.
• Continue to provide comprehensive IT and network services and support to enable the successful delivery and operation of the Laboratories Canada initiative to provide world-class, sustainable, and collaborative Scientific research hubs.

Supporting IT Integration for National Security

The Government is committed to increase defence spending to meet its NATO commitments and modernize the digital capabilities that underpin Canada’s national defence. SSC is working closely with the Department of National Defence to provide critical digital infrastructure and services that enable operational readiness and mission success. As defence capabilities increasingly rely on secure and resilient digital technologies, SSC is a key partner in strengthening these capabilities, including supporting the transition and integration of the Canadian Coast Guard within the defence digital environment.

Strengthening Support to Mission-Critical IT services

SSC is strengthening the reliability, resilience, and operational oversight of mission-critical IT services to restore service as quickly as possible and even anticipate problems. This initiative will enhance service monitoring and leverage a reliable configuration management database to gain a comprehensive and authoritative view of infrastructure, applications, and service dependencies. These measures will foster greater visibility, faster problem detection, more effective incident and change management, and increased accountability among partners. By advancing this initiative, SSC continues to strengthen its capacity to provide reliable and robust infrastructure and effectively support its partner departments in delivering essential services to Canadians efficiently and effectively.

Digital Comptrollership Enterprise Service

The Federal Government currently operates with 42 separate financial management systems supported by 5 different commercial suppliers. Many of these solutions are at, or nearing, their end-of-life. Efforts have been underway to transition to a new enterprise financial management platform.

Starting in 2026-27, SSC will be leading the initiative to modernize the Federal Government’s financial management systems, processes, and tools. The proposed new enterprise platform will support the continuity of financial management services across government and will be supported through a new contracting vehicle. The implementation of the enterprise financial management platform is expected to reduce administrative burden, eliminate unnecessary duplications of effort, and secure economies of scale, thereby achieving greater cost savings and efficiency in the long term.

Serving Government

SSC is strengthening the Serving Government platform, an internal to government site, by modernizing how it coordinates and communicates with partner and client departments.

In 2026-27, SSC will advance the foundations for a common reporting environment for federal organizations. This includes clearer and more consistent intake pathways for departmental requests, better visibility into incident and change processes, streamlined reporting, and improved accuracy and coherence of the service and financial information shared with departments.

These improvements will make it easier for departments to navigate SSC services, reduce administrative burden, and support CIO engagement. This work directly supports the evolution of the Serving Government portal into a one-window, personalized platform for information, dashboards, and reports.

The spending decrease of $173.8 million or (6%) from 2023-24 to 2024-25 is primarily due to a decrease in sunset funding for Cyber initiatives, IT Repair and Replacement Program, the Network Modernization and Implementation Fund, Service Integrity- Mission Critical Projects, Workload Modernization and Migration Program, decreased spending for SCED Evolution and Departmental Connectivity and Monitoring initiative and decreases due to RGS initiatives.

The forecast spending for 2025-26 includes funding for the carry-forward from 2024-25, funding for the Presidency of the 2025 G7 Summit in Canada as well as new funding received through the Supplementary Estimates for the Security Information and Event Management solution from the 2022 Fall Economic Statement and to support cloud operations at Statistics Canada.

SSC’s planned spending reflects the amounts approved by Parliament to support the department’s core responsibility and internal services. The approved amount is net of vote-netted revenue of $1,063.0 million in 2026-27 to 2027-28 and $963.0 million in 2028-29. This represents an increase from 2025-26’s forecasted vote-netted revenue of $978.0 million driven by activities to support DND’s operational and modernization priorities to support the management of software and services agreements on behalf of the Government of Canada.

The planned spending for 2026-27 includes new funding for the Security Information and Event Management solution from the 2022 Fall Economic Statement and funding for the CanAI Garage initiative to continue advancing artificial intelligence capacity across government and support human resources and pay modernization. This is offset by reductions to implement the comprehensive expenditure review as announced in Budget 2025.

The decrease in planned spending from 2026-27 to 2027-28 is mainly due to the reductions to implement the comprehensive expenditure review as announced in Budget 2025, decreases in funding for the Standardization of Mandatory Network, Security and Digital Services for Small Departments and Agencies (SDA) from Budget 2022, and for the CanAI Garage initiative.

The decrease in planned spending from 2027-28 to 2028-29 is mainly due to the reductions to implement the comprehensive expenditure review as announced in Budget 2025 and decrease in funding for Safeguarding access to High Performance Computing for Canada’s Hydro-Meteorological Services.

SSC is required to provide specialized IT services to its partners and clients. The 2026-27 planned revenues of $1,063.0 million represents the vote-netted authority for SSC which enables the department to re-spend the revenues received to offset expenditures arising from their provision in the same fiscal year. It reflects increases from the previous fiscal year to account for rising service volumes consistent with increased defence spending and federal Budget 2025 commitments and to support the management of software and services agreements on behalf of the Government of Canada.

The departmental spending trend graph presents trends in the department’s planned and actual spending over time. The data representing actual spending (from fiscal year 2023-24 to fiscal year 2024-25), forecast spending (for fiscal year 2025-26) and planned spending (for fiscal year 2026-27 to fiscal year 2028-29), is broken down between statutory and voted expenditures.

Analysis of the variances in actual spending, forecast spending and planned spending are provided in the budgetary planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services section.

The decrease from the 2025-26 forecast spending to the 2026-27 planned spending is mainly due to decreases in funding for: the reductions to implement the comprehensive expenditure review announced in Budget 2025, reductions in support of initiatives to refocus government spending announced in Budget 2023, the carry-forward in 2025-26 and for decreases in funding for SCED Evolution and Departmental Connectivity, and sunset funding for the 2025 G7 Summit in Canada and for cloud operations at Statistics Canada. This is offset by an increase in funding for the CanAI Garage initiative, and from various 2022 Fall Economic Statement initiatives such as Safeguarding Access to High Performance Computing for Canada’s Hydro-Meteorological Services, Reinforcing the Government of Canada’s Cyber Security, and for the Security Information and Event Management solution.

FTE increases from 2023-24 to 2024-25 are mainly due to additional FTEs to address the increased demand for SSC’s services and to support service delivery improvements. From 2024-25 to 2025-26 the decrease is primarily driven by attrition and reduced funding for time-limited initiatives, such as Safeguarding access to High Performance Computing for Canada’s Hydro-Meteorological Service.

The decrease from 2026-27 to 2028-29 is mainly due to reductions to implement the comprehensive expenditure review as announced in Budget 2025 and reductions in funding related to the Presidency of the 2025 G7 Summit in Canada and for the Standardization of Mandatory Network, Security and Digital Services for Small Departments and Agencies.

Although the table above shows a decrease in planned full-time equivalents (FTEs) over the next three years, SSC’s FTE requirements are subject to increases resulting from the addition of new enterprise-wide program responsibilities such as the CanAI Garage initiative, cloud operations, and the Digital Comptrollership Enterprise Service.

• Appropriate minister: 
  The Honourable Joël Lightbound, P.C., M.P.

• Institutional head: 
  Scott Jones, President, SSC

• Ministerial portfolio: 
  Public Works and Procurement, and Minister responsible for Shared Services Canada

• Enabling instrument: 
  Shared Services Canada Act

• Year of incorporation / commencement: 
  2011

Please send your inquiries to the following email address publication-publication@ssc-spc.gc.ca

• Media inquiries: 

• Please send your inquiries by email to media@ssc-spc.gc.ca or to the Media Relations Office by telephone at 613-670-1626

• Website: 
  Shared Services Canada

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, departments or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)

An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental results that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)

A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3 year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)

A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that connects the department’s core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on a department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

full-time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person-year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full-time equivalent figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS Plus])

Is an analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs, and other initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue or opportunity being addressed by the initiative; identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted; and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography (including rurality), language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

Using GBA Plus involves taking a gender- and diversity-sensitive approach to our work. Considering all intersecting identity factors as part of GBA Plus, not only sex and gender, is a Government of Canada commitment.

government priorities (priorités gouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2026-27 Departmental Plan, government priorities are the high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2025 Speech from the Throne.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where two or more federal departments are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

Indigenous business (entreprise autochtones)

Requirements for verifying Indigenous businesses for the purposes of the departmental result report are available through the Indigenous Services Canada Mandatory minimum 5% Indigenous procurement target website.

non‑budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Non-budgetary authorities that comprise assets and liabilities transactions for loans, investments and advances, or specified purpose accounts, that have been established under specific statutes or under non-statutory authorities in the Estimates and elsewhere. Non-budgetary transactions are those expenditures and receipts related to the government's financial claims on, and obligations to, outside parties. These consist of transactions in loans, investments and advances; in cash and accounts receivable; in public money received or collected for specified purposes; and in all other assets and liabilities. Other assets and liabilities, not specifically defined in G to P authority codes are to be recorded to an R authority code, which is the residual authority code for all other assets and liabilities.

performance (rendement)

What a department did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the department intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of a department, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how a department intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)

Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A consequence attributed, in part, to a department, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single department, policy, program or initiative; instead, they are within the area of the department’s influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)

A measurable performance or success level that a department, program or initiative plaA measurable performance or success level that a department, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.