DM/CDS Message: DND/CAF Departmental Plan 2024–25 and Spending Reductions

March 4, 2024 - Defence Stories

Yesterday, the Government of Canada announced its plan to reduce spending and find long-term savings that will ensure key priorities for Canadians are well-supported in the years ahead. As the largest organization in the federal government, Defence has an important role to play in helping to realize this goal.

We are committed to finding ways to make our operations more efficient, and making sure that our dollars are concentrated on achieving our top defence priorities. Some reductions will not have an impact, or immediate impact, on the day-to-day work of the Defence Team.

But in other areas, there will be impacts. Many of you may already be aware, through business planning exercises, of the streamlining and consolidation of training, reductions to travel budgets, reallocation of work, or re-absorption of certain functions into the Defence Team, as professional services costs are reduced.

Over the past several months, your organizations have done the initial rigorous work to complete our part of the government-wide spending review announced in Budget 2023. This exercise has driven us to ensure the Defence budget is prudently invested in programs and services that Canadians rely on while ensuring resources are focused where they are needed the most.

The Departmental Plan, tabled yesterday in the House of Commons, shows planned spending reductions of $810 million for 2024–25, growing to $908 million per year in 2026–27 and ongoing fiscal years. We will achieve savings from activities that have a history of underspending their approved funding, and from initiatives to be delivered in future years.

Now, there are more priority-setting exercises to come so that we can provide the Minister of National Defence with additional, more focused spending reduction proposals for fall 2024, to fully meet the target of $908 million per year. We thank all of you for your support as it is only together as an entire Defence Team that we will continue to achieve our mandates and mission readiness.

Again, our guiding principle throughout this is to minimize the impacts, and to direct Defence spending toward top defence and government priorities, which include increasing military capabilities, achieving our vital recruiting objectives, supporting our people and their families, and building a more modern, viable combat-ready force.

Members of the Defence Team can find out more in the following documents:

• National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces 2024-25 Departmental Plan (See under “Refocusing government spending” for an overview of the spending reductions and savings measures)
• Department of National Defence 2024-25 Main Estimates

We will keep you informed of updates as they occur and know that we can count on your continued support in the months ahead.

Bill Matthews
Deputy Minister

General Wayne Eyre
Chief of the Defence Staff