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Public Safety Canada

What Public Safety Canada spent in fiscal year 2025-26: its net expenditure by standard object, from the Public Accounts of Canada, Volume II.

What Public Safety Canada does

Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Canada (Public Safety Canada) is the federal department responsible for national security, emergency preparedness, and community safety. Established in 2003, it consolidates security, law enforcement, and emergency management functions, coordinating federal responses to threats and developing policies on crime prevention, cyber resilience, and disaster preparedness while overseeing intelligence-sharing with domestic and international partners.

Federal spending on public safety fluctuates with evolving security threats, emergency events, and changes in government policy, and has reflected heightened investment over time in counterterrorism, cyber defence, and disaster response.

Major policy shifts, unforeseen events such as natural disasters, and global security concerns can significantly affect the department's annual spending. The COVID-19 pandemic, for example, led to a sharp increase in federal emergency response funding in 2020.

Spending, 2025-26

Net spending, 2025-26

$1.37B

spent by Public Safety Canada, less revenues it kept

Share, 2025-26

0.3%

of the net spending of every federal organization

How did Public Safety Canada 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

Information

Other subsidies and payments

Transportation and communications

Acquisition of machinery and equipment

Repair and maintenance

Utilities, materials and supplies

External revenues

Internal revenues

$1.06B

$237M

$43.7M

$7.4M

$6M

$4.9M

$4.2M

$3.8M

$1.7M

$463K

-$496K

-$2.6M

Total: $1.37B.

Workforce, 2025-26

Personnel spending

$237M

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 Public Safety Canada paid, program by program: $1.06B in all, against $1.06B for the transfer payments object above (the Public Accounts publish the two tables separately).

Payments to the provinces, territories, municipalities, Indian band councils and recognized authorities representing Indians on reserve, Indian communities on Crown land and Inuit communities, for the First Nations and Inuit Policing ProgramPaymentsContribution$316,780,881
Contributions to the provinces for assistance related to natural disastersPaymentsContribution$287,266,719
Gun and Gang Violence Action FundPaymentsContribution$78,123,079
Contributions in support of the Safer Communities InitiativePaymentsContribution$59,427,855
Building Safer Communities FundPaymentsContribution$56,327,363
Memorial Grant Program for First RespondersPaymentsGrant$46,200,000
Major International Event Security Cost FrameworkPaymentsContribution$39,307,799
Supporting a humanitarian workforce to respond to COVID-19 and other large-scale emergenciesPaymentsContribution$31,526,930
Funding for First Nation and Inuit policing facilitiesPaymentsContribution$21,493,161
Contribution Program to Combat Serious and Organized CrimePaymentsContribution$19,018,259
Contributions for supporting the Canadian Red Cross's urgent relief efforts related to COVID-19, floods and wildfiresPaymentsContribution$18,112,126
Contributions for the Community Resilience FundPaymentsContribution$14,022,212
Biology Casework Analysis Contribution ProgramPaymentsContribution$13,090,567
Contribution in support of the Nation's Capital Extraordinary Policing Costs ProgramPaymentsContribution$10,000,000
Parliamentary District Policing ProgramPaymentsContribution$7,900,000
34 programs$1,060,041,467
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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 yearGoodsServicesConstructionAcquisition cardsTotal
2024$75,604$358,222$0$2,527,234$2,961,060
2023$112,234$462,155$0$2,271,260$2,845,648
2022$72,803$527,126$0$1,715,857$2,315,786
2021$71,805$585,769$0$1,151,665$1,809,239
2020$57,211$472,609$0$1,544,091$2,073,910
2019$149,052$630,434$0$2,663,095$3,442,581
2018$157,329$579,130$0$2,300,740$3,037,199
2017$282,664$1,062,751$0$1,805,763$3,151,179

Public Safety Canada’s share of federal net spending