Program directory · Employment and Social Development Canada
Canada Student Financial Assistance Program and Canada Apprentice Loan
- Department
- Employment and Social Development Canada
- Program code
- BGO17 (HRSD)
- Core responsibility
- Learning, Skills Development and Employment
- In Departmental Plans
- 2018-19 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan
What it does
The Canada Student Financial Assistance (CSFA) Program and Canada Apprentice Loan (CAL) reduce barriers to post-secondary education (PSE) and apprenticeship training by providing full and part-time students and apprentices with financial support, as well as repayment assistance. This includes, in particular, students from low- and middle-income families, and those with dependents or disabilities.
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada Student Financial Assistance Program and Canada Apprentice Loan | This program | 2018-19 – 2028-29 | $30.1B |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Indicators added: 3-year cohort default rate (by dollar value). | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2019-20 | Indicators dropped: Percentage of full-time students (aged 15-29) who used federal student financial assistance to help finance their participation in post-secondary education. | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2019-20 | Renamed from “Canada Student Loans and Grants and Canada Apprentice Loans Program” to “Canada Student Loans Program and Canada Apprentice Loans”. | GC InfoBase program names by year |
| 2020-21 | Indicators added: Percentage of clients satisfied with the service on their Canada Student Loan or Grant. | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2020-21 | Indicators dropped: 3-year cohort default rate (by dollar value).; 3-year default rate (by dollar value) for Canada Student Loan borrowers; Percentage of borrowers satisfied with the service from CSLP; Total number of Canada Apprentice Loan borrowers. | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2020-21 | Spending $6.86B, against $2.72B in 2019-20 (+152%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2021-22 | Spending $4.64B, against $6.86B in 2020-21 (−32%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Renamed from “Canada Student Loans Program and Canada Apprentice Loans” to “Canada Student Financial Assistance Program and Canada Apprentice Loans”. | GC InfoBase program names by year |
| 2023-24 | Indicators added: Percentage of borrowers satisfied with the service from the National Student Loans Service Centre (NSLSC) | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2023-24 | Indicators dropped: Percentage of clients satisfied with the service on their Canada Student Loan or Grant. | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2023-24 | Renamed from “Canada Student Financial Assistance Program and Canada Apprentice Loans” to “Canada Student Financial Assistance Program and Canada Apprentice Loan”. | GC InfoBase program names by year |
| 2025 | Budget 2025 measure “Extending Increases to Canada Student Grants and Loans”: $1,146M in total over its years (linked to this program by name, a best-effort match). | Budget 2025, PDF page 283 |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | ≥ 75% | 2024 | 78.2% | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 75% | 2025 | 78.9% | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | ≥ 75% | 2021 | 78.5% | Met |
| 2022-23 | Not available | 2023 | 75.6% | No result reported |
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Target not specified. | 2020 | Not available. Canada Apprentice Loan (CAL) was established in 2014 and to date insufficient data has been collected to establish a default rate. It will be several more years before sufficient data is available to develop a target. | No result reported |
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Target not specified. | 2020 | Not available. This indicator was introduced in the previous planning period. Insufficient data was available to develop a target for 2019-2020. Actual result for 2018-19 is 9%. The actual result reflects information from the end of the 2018-19 loan year, which captured the three-year default rate of CSLP borrowers who entered into repayment in 2016-17. The 2019-2020 result is not yet available. | No result reported |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | ≥ 80% | 2019 | 82% | Met |
| 2019-20 | ≥ 78% | 2020 | — Considering the pandemic and the difficulties faced by students and borrowers in repayment, it was decided not to proceed with the client satisfaction survey at the end of the 2019-2020 fiscal year, and results are therefore not available. | No result reported |
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Target not specified. | 2020 | 10,700 The total number of CAL borrowers was 10,700 in 2019-2020. This provides a measure of how many apprentices are eligible for and require additional support. However, this number tends to fluctuate from year to year and no reliable target can be set. | No result reported |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 75% | 2027 | — | Planned |
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | $2.09B | $2.7B |
| 2019-20 | $2.42B | $2.72B |
| 2020-21 | $2.69B | $6.86B |
| 2021-22 | $3.15B | $4.64B |
| 2022-23 | $4.76B | $4.91B |
| 2023-24 | $3.42B | $4.39B |
| 2024-25 | $3.09B | $3.88B |
| 2025-26 | $3.5B | — |
| 2026-27 | $3.49B | — |
| 2027-28 | $3.23B* | — |
| 2028-29 | $3.21B* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 233 | 235 |
| 2019-20 | 233 | 232 |
| 2020-21 | 233 | 244 |
| 2021-22 | 233 | 242 |
| 2022-23 | 233 | 258 |
| 2023-24 | 233 | 242 |
| 2024-25 | 232 | 236 |
| 2025-26 | 230 | — |
| 2026-27 | 217 | — |
| 2027-28 | 211* | — |
| 2028-29 | 203* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 plan | $2,089,142,258 | $2,092,114,435 | $2,137,130,214 | ||||||||
| 2019-20 plan | $2,424,673,295 | $2,445,074,107 | $2,364,888,261 | ||||||||
| 2020-21 plan | $2,690,558,909 | $2,579,796,113 | $2,576,167,955 | ||||||||
| 2021-22 plan | $3,150,491,343 | $2,556,502,029 | $2,515,459,468 | ||||||||
| 2022-23 plan | $4,756,154,403 | $3,413,094,404 | $2,674,729,546 | ||||||||
| 2023-24 plan | $3,418,020,779 | $2,790,972,393 | $2,756,989,630 | ||||||||
| 2024-25 plan | $3,094,952,310 | $2,928,446,507 | $2,928,023,000 | ||||||||
| 2025-26 plan | $3,504,645,025 | $3,063,325,114 | $3,070,266,952 | ||||||||
| 2026-27 plan | $3,491,452,026 | $3,227,574,874 | $3,212,231,339 | ||||||||
| Actual | $2,703,766,528 | $2,724,035,937 | $6,855,809,220 | $4,636,488,323 | $4,910,059,094 | $4,388,327,208 | $3,884,146,658 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
