Canadian Heritage
What Canadian Heritage spent in fiscal year 2025-26: its net expenditure by standard object, from the Public Accounts of Canada, Volume II.
Reports through Canadian Heritage; the overview shows it in that ministry.
What Canadian Heritage does
Canadian Heritage is responsible for federal policy and programming related to arts, culture, heritage, sport, and Canadian identity, including support for official languages, multiculturalism, and Indigenous languages and cultures. It also funds and oversees a number of affiliated cultural organizations and Crown corporations.
Spending, 2025-26
Net spending, 2025-26
$2.22B
spent by Canadian Heritage, less revenues it kept
Share, 2025-26
0.5%
of the net spending of every federal organization
How did Canadian Heritage spend its budget in 2025-26?
By standard object. Revenues it kept are negative and netted against its spending. Transfer payments are broken into their largest named programs.
Spending by standard object, 2025-26
Transfer payments
Personnel
Professional and special services
Rentals
Transportation and communications
Information
Acquisition of machinery and equipment
Utilities, materials and supplies
Repair and maintenance
Other subsidies and payments
Internal revenues
External revenues
$1.93B
$244M
$35.5M
$6.4M
$3.2M
$3.2M
$2.4M
$2.2M
$1.1M
$485K
-$2.6M
-$6.6M
Total: $2.22B.
Workforce, 2025-26
Personnel spending
$244M
salaries, wages and benefits (the personnel standard object)
A full-time equivalent is a measure of employment, not a headcount: two half-time employees are one FTE. Personnel spending includes benefits and pension contributions, so per FTE it is not an average salary.
Transfer payment programs, 2025-26
The grants, contributions and other transfers Canadian Heritage paid, program by program: $1.93B in all, against $1.93B for the transfer payments object above (the Public Accounts publish the two tables separately).
| Contributions in support of the Development of Official-Language Communities ProgramPayments | Contribution | $388,368,571 |
| Contributions to support the Canada Media FundPayments | Contribution | $205,296,077 |
| Contributions in support of the Enhancement of Official Languages ProgramPayments | Contribution | $193,582,306 |
| Contributions for the Sport Support ProgramPayments | Contribution | $193,144,825 |
| Contributions to support the Indigenous Languages ProgramPayments | Contribution | $157,909,262 |
| Contributions for the Hosting ProgramPayments | Contribution | $124,242,133 |
| Grants to the Canada Periodical FundPayments | Grant | $82,267,026 |
| Contributions to the Canada Cultural Spaces FundPayments | Contribution | $67,288,396 |
| Contributions to the Canada Music FundPayments | Contribution | $41,099,231 |
| Grants to the Athlete Assistance ProgramPayments | Grant | $38,526,574 |
| Grants to the Canada Book FundPayments | Grant | $30,279,949 |
| Contributions to the Canada Arts Training FundPayments | Contribution | $30,088,320 |
| Contributions to the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism ProgramPayments | Contribution | $26,226,052 |
| Grants to the Canada Arts Presentation FundPayments | Grant | $24,425,631 |
| Grants in support of the Development of Official-Language Communities ProgramPayments | Grant | $22,393,428 |
| 62 programs | $1,930,951,992 | |
Contracts of $10,000 and under
Contracts this small are not published one by one: Treasury Board publishes each organization's totals, by calendar year, for contracts of $10,000 and under (their original value and their amendments) and for acquisition card purchases. They are the value of contracts entered into, not what was paid in a fiscal year, so they are not part of the net expenditure above, and the years are calendar years.
| Calendar year | Goods | Services | Construction | Acquisition cards | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $273,708 | $1,907,496 | $12,501 | $2,164,069 | $4,357,774 |
| 2024 | $221,412 | $2,257,196 | $3,425 | $2,295,280 | $4,777,313 |
| 2023 | $167,552 | $2,450,535 | $5,720 | $1,989,225 | $4,613,031 |
| 2022 | $256,813 | $3,482,715 | $17,981 | $2,923,038 | $6,680,547 |
| 2021 | $262,955 | $2,610,998 | $12,888 | $1,661,622 | $4,548,463 |
| 2020 | $353,321 | $1,816,814 | $25,763 | $2,928,383 | $5,124,281 |
| 2019 | $417,814 | $2,698,369 | $32,324 | $3,538,857 | $6,687,364 |
| 2018 | $617,414 | $3,188,906 | $97,611 | $3,663,682 | $7,567,613 |
| 2017 | $897,953 | $3,402,062 | $33,351 | $3,793,328 | $8,126,693 |
Canadian Heritage’s share of federal net spending
Other organizations in Canadian Heritage
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
- Canada Council for the Arts
- Library and Archives Canada
- Telefilm Canada
- Canadian Museum of History
- National Film Board
- National Arts Centre Corporation
- National Gallery of Canada
- National Museum of Science and Technology
- Canadian Museum of Nature
- Canadian Museum for Human Rights
- The National Battlefields Commission
- Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
- Canadian Race Relations Foundation
- Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
Sources
- Public Accounts of Canada 2026, Volume II: Ministerial expenditures by standard object (Table 3)
- Public Accounts of Canada, Volume II: Transfer payments (multi-year open data)
- Proactive Publication - Contracts: Aggregated Total - Contracts $10K and under
Department figures are net expenditure (Public Accounts, Volume II), which doesn’t add up to the accrual expenses of the overview’s headline. See the methodology.
