Privy Council Office’s 2024–25 Departmental Plan at a glance

A departmental plan describes a department’s priorities, plans and associated costs for the upcoming three fiscal years.

• Vision, mission, raison d’être and operating context
• Ministers’ mandate letters

Key priorities

• Provide non-partisan advice to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Portfolio Ministers, Cabinet, and Cabinet committees on matters of national and international importance.
• Support the smooth functioning of the Cabinet decision-making process to help implement the Government’s agenda.
• Ensure Canada is safe and secure, and promote a fair, transparent and democratic Government.
• Foster an effective, diverse, inclusive and innovative Public Service.

Refocusing Government Spending

In Budget 2023, the government committed to reducing spending by $14.1 billion over the next five years, starting in 2023–24, and by $4.1 billion annually after that.

As part of meeting this commitment, the Privy Council Office (PCO) is planning the following spending reductions.

• 2024–25: $3,930,000
• 2025–26: $5,486,000
• 2026–27 and after: $7,616,000

To achieve these reductions, PCO is reviewing its organizational structure to find efficiencies in order to create savings. This includes right-sizing organizations by combining functions and streamlining management structures to deliver more efficiently and effectively and the redistribution of workload where it does not impede our ability to implement the Government's agenda. In addition, we are reducing discretionary travel and targeting modest reductions in professional services; identifying and eliminating other discretionary expenditures that are not directly aligned with delivering on our core mandate; and lastly finding savings in general corporate overhead across the organization. 

The figures in this departmental plan reflect these reductions.

Highlights

A Departmental Results Framework consists of an organization’s core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.

Serve the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Departmental results

• Government’s priorities are achieved
• Cabinet receives high quality advice
• Cabinet decision-making process runs smoothly to help implement the Government's agenda
• Public Service renewal priorities are achieved

PCO facilitates coherent and consistent government-wide implementation of Cabinet decisions. This enables the government of the day to deliver on its priorities to the benefit of all Canadians.

In 2024–25, PCO will continue to support the Prime Minister and Cabinet in advancing the Government’s priorities. To this end, the Department will:

• Support and advance economic and social policies that foster innovation, skills development, economic growth, access to housing, affordability, sustainable jobs and growth of the middle class.
• Provide timely, comprehensive, expert analysis and advice in support of the full spectrum of policy, budget, machinery of government and legislative priorities of the Prime Minister, Cabinet and Cabinet committees.
• Continue to enhance partnerships with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, as well as Indigenous partners and communities, to advance the Government of Canada’s priorities, including in the areas of health care, climate, housing, reconciliation, internal trade, public safety and immigration.
• Support the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Cabinet Ministers by providing timely and non-partisan analysis and advice to advance the Government’s suite of affordability measures to reduce the cost of living for Canadians.
• Support the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
• Focus on supporting the Government’s agenda through protecting the environment, fighting climate change, modernizing international trade agreements, strengthening trade within Canada, supporting supply chain resilience, and enhancing Canada’s immigration system, including for asylum seekers.
• Develop and provide strategic foreign, security and defence policy advice and relevant intelligence assessments to advance Canada’s interests at home and abroad, and bolster national security.
• Support the effective management and renewal of the Public Service, including through leading by example in sustaining and accelerating momentum on the Clerk’s Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service, and the forward direction to deputies and supporting a renewed dialogue on values and ethics.

More information about PCO’s core responsibility, Serve the Prime Minister and Cabinet, can be found in the full departmental plan.