Departmental Plans

Find more information on results, financial and human resources related to the 2024-25 Departmental Plans on GC InfoBase.

Departmental Plans (DP) are part of the Estimates family of documents. Estimates documents support appropriation acts, which specify the amounts and broad purposes for which funds can be spent by the government.

The Estimates document family has three parts.

Part I

(Government Expenditure Plan) provides an overview of federal spending.

Part II

(Main Estimates) lists the financial resources required by individual departments, agencies and Crown corporations for the upcoming fiscal year.

Part III

Departmental Expenditure Plans consist of two documents: Departmental Plans (DP) and Departmental Results Reports (DRR). DPs are expenditure plans for each appropriated department and agency (excluding Crown corporations). They describe departmental priorities, strategic outcomes, programs, expected results and associated resource requirements, covering a three-year period beginning with the year indicated in the title of the report. DPs are tabled in Parliament by the President of the Treasury Board on behalf of the ministers who preside over the appropriation-dependent departments and agencies identified in Schedules I, I.1 and II of the Financial Administration Act. Once tabled, DPs are referred to committees, which may then report to the House of Commons pursuant to Standing Order 81(7). DRRs are individual department and agency accounts of actual performance, for the most recently completed fiscal year, against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in their respective DPs. DRRs inform parliamentarians and Canadians of the results achieved by government organizations for Canadians.

Additionally, Supplementary Estimates documents present information on spending requirements that were either not sufficiently developed in time for inclusion in the Main Estimates or were subsequently refined to account for developments in particular programs and services.

The financial information in DPs is drawn from authorities presented in the Main Estimates and is also consistent with information in the Public Accounts of Canada. The DPs rely on financial information from the Public Accounts of Canada to display authorities used for past fiscal years, while the Main Estimates provide budgetary expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year. The planned spending figures found in DPs include the Estimates as well as any other amounts that have been approved through a Treasury Board submission up to February 1st. This readjusting of the financial figures allows for a more up-to-date portrait of planned spending by program.

The Treasury Board Policy on Results, which replaced the Policy on Management, Resources and Results Structures, further strengthens the alignment of the performance information presented in DPs, other Estimates documents and the Public Accounts of Canada. The policy establishes the Departmental Results Framework (DRF) of appropriated organizations as the structure against which financial and non-financial performance information is provided for Estimates and parliamentary reporting. The same reporting structure applies irrespective of whether the organization is reporting in the Main Estimates, the DP, the DRR or the Public Accounts of Canada. All departments are expected to transition from the PAA to the DRF by . Until then those departments that have not yet developed their DRF continue to report against their PAA.

Find more information on results, financial and human resources (including Program Inventory data) on GC InfoBase.

Archived Departmental Plans

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