Department of Indigenous Services
What Department of Indigenous Services spent in fiscal year 2025-26: its net expenditure by standard object, from the Public Accounts of Canada, Volume II.
Reports through Indigenous Services; the overview shows it in that ministry.
What Department of Indigenous Services does
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) are two distinct federal departments tasked with advancing Indigenous priorities in Canada. Established in 2017 following the dissolution of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), they divide the work: ISC delivers essential services to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities — health care, education, housing, and child and family services — and works to transfer control of those services to Indigenous-led organizations, while CIRNAC leads treaty negotiations, self-government agreements, land claims, and Northern affairs.
Federal spending on Indigenous priorities shifts over time with population growth, policy changes, new self-government and claim-settlement agreements, and one-time events such as the settlement of compensation claims for First Nations child and family services. Significant challenges nonetheless remain in areas such as housing, health care access, and infrastructure in remote Indigenous communities.
Spending, 2025-26
Net spending, 2025-26
$25.4B
spent by Department of Indigenous Services, less revenues it kept
Share, 2025-26
5.3%
of the net spending of every federal organization
How did Department of Indigenous Services 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
Professional and special services
Personnel
Utilities, materials and supplies
Transportation and communications
Acquisition of machinery and equipment
Other subsidies and payments
Rentals
Information
Repair and maintenance
Acquisition of land, buildings and works
External revenues
Internal revenues
$21.9B
$1.01B
$993M
$815M
$592M
$80.6M
$37.9M
$14.3M
$10.3M
$5M
$203K
-$6.5M
-$42.2M
Total: $25.4B.
Workforce, 2025-26
Personnel spending
$993M
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 Department of Indigenous Services paid, program by program: $21.9B in all, against $21.9B for the transfer payments object above (the Public Accounts publish the two tables separately).
| Contributions to support the construction and maintenance of community infrastructurePayments | Contribution | $3,899,173,336 |
| Contributions to provide children, youth, young adults, families and communities with prevention and protection servicesPayments | Contribution | $3,724,728,183 |
| Contributions for First Nations and Inuit Primary Health CarePayments | Contribution | $2,751,606,588 |
| Contributions to support First Nations Elementary and Secondary Educational AdvancementPayments | Contribution | $2,718,210,519 |
| Grant to support the new fiscal relationship for First NationsPayments | Grant | $2,092,280,549 |
| Contributions for First Nations and Inuit Health Infrastructure SupportPayments | Contribution | $1,517,176,688 |
| Contributions to provide income support to on-reserve residents and Status Indians in the Yukon TerritoryPayments | Contribution | $1,221,709,792 |
| Contributions for emergency management assistance for activities on reservesPayments | Contribution | $934,554,890 |
| Grants to support child and family services coordination agreements and related fiscal arrangementsPayments | Grant | $653,322,434 |
| Contributions for First Nations and Inuit Supplementary Health BenefitsPayments | Contribution | $484,985,141 |
| Contributions to support the First Nations Post-Secondary Education StrategyPayments | Contribution | $326,788,742 |
| Contributions to support Land Management and Economic DevelopmentPayments | Contribution | $294,495,223 |
| Grant for Band Support FundingPayments | Grant | $186,621,208 |
| Contributions to support Urban Programming for Indigenous PeoplesPayments | Contribution | $184,019,844 |
| Contributions to support Indigenous governments and institutions, and to build strong governancePayments | Contribution | $182,293,043 |
| 33 programs | $21,911,865,932 | |
Department of Indigenous Services’s share of federal net spending
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)
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.
