Department of Justice Canada 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.

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Key priorities

  • Keeping Canadians safe in our communities and online
  • Supporting the needs of the courts
  • Improving access to justice in Canada, particularly for Black, Indigenous and racialized people, and supporting victims and survivors of crime
  • Delivering on the Government of Canada's reconciliation agenda and addressing systemic discrimination and racism

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 this commitment, the Department of Justice Canada (Justice Canada) is planning the following spending reductions:

  • 2024–25: $6,654,000
  • 2025–26: $9,692,500
  • 2026–27 and per year ongoing: $15,114,000

The spending reductions fall under the following two categories:

Professional services and travel (Starting in 2023-24)

Under this category, the Department is focusing on reducing discretionary spending by optimizing its existing workforce and seizing new opportunities to carry out its work. Reductions in professional services will focus mainly on funding alternative ways of achieving results. For example, the Department is piloting a new translation tool to reduce its dependency on external service providers. The use of new and emerging technologies implemented over the last few years will allow employees to continue to work differently and virtually, enabling the Department to reduce travel costs while also benefiting from technology-enabled participation in events, engagements and learning that was not possible in the past.

Operations and Grants and Contributions (Starting in 2024–25)

Further operating reductions were identified in areas where efficiencies could be found, allowing the Department to minimize the impact on front-line services and refocus spending on the government’s core priorities for Canadians. The Department will take advantage of new digital tools and the hybrid work environment to reduce office space requirements gradually and strategically across Canada.

The grant and contribution reductions will focus on programs such as the Contraventions Act Program, the Integrated Market Enforcement Teams Reserve Fund, the Special Advocates Program, and the State Funded Counsel Program. The Department is confident that these reductions in grants and contributions will not have an adverse impact on services to Canadians.

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.

Legal Services

Departmental results:

  • Departments and agencies receive high-quality legal services.

Planned spending: $230,876,958

Planned human resources: 3,918

Plans to achieve results:

Justice Canada is mandated to support the dual roles of the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada. The Department will deliver high-quality, integrated legal advisory, litigation, and legislative services in support of the implementation of many Government of Canada priorities and ministerial mandate letter commitments, including the following notable Government-wide priorities:

  • The Government of Canada’s reconciliation agenda, which includes upholding section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, the ongoing implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (UN Declaration Act), the continued implementation of the Principles Respecting the Government of Canada's Relationship with Indigenous Peoples and the Directive on Civil Litigation Involving Indigenous Peoples.
  • Assisting Canadians in need, which includes matters relating to health care, dental care and housing affordability.
  • Sustainability and environmental priorities, including those promoting climate action, sustainable jobs and reconciliation, as well as initiatives in support of Canada’s net-zero targets.
  • Public safety, including matters related to online harms to children and minority communities, organized crime and gang activity and foreign interference.
  • Regulatory and legislative reforms, such as efforts to make the Canadian regulatory system more agile, transparent and responsive. Other examples of reforms include modernizing the Canada Grain Act and the Canadian procurement system.
  • Strategic management of litigation and continued strengthening of litigation management frameworks, including those associated with class actions.

More information about Legal Services can be found in the full Departmental Plan.

Justice System Support

Departmental results:

  • Justice Canada laws and policies abide by the rule of law and promote respect for rights and a fair, accessible and relevant legal framework in Canada.
  • The criminal justice system supports alternative ways of responding to the causes and consequences of offending.
  • Canadians in contact with the justice system have access to appropriate services enabling a fair, timely and accessible justice system.

Planned spending: $602,493,696

Planned human resources: 394

Plans to achieve results:

Justice Canada has broad responsibilities for overseeing all matters relating to the administration of justice that fall within the federal domain. Notably, the Department will do the following:

  • Contribute to a renewed relationship with First Nations, Inuit and Métis and accelerate progress on the implementation of the justice-related Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and the commitments outlined in the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People National Action Plan. To do so, the Department will continue to play a lead role in coordinating whole-of-government implementation of the UN Declaration Act and the related Action Plan. The Department will also continue to co-develop an Indigenous Justice Strategy, in consultation and cooperation with Indigenous peoples and in collaboration with provinces and territories, to address systemic discrimination and the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system.
  • Advance criminal law reform and enhance the criminal justice system response to address matters such as gender-based violence and intimate partner violence, cybercrime, and overrepresentation of Indigenous people, Black people and other racialized individuals in the criminal justice system. The Department will develop an implementation plan for Canada’s Black Justice Strategy and establish a Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission through the passage of Bill C-40.
  • Support Canada’s criminal justice priorities on the international stage.
  • Continue to support the implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and advance the Federal Victims Strategy to increase access to justice for victims and survivors of crime.
  • Continue to support specialized programs and services that respond to changing conditions affecting Canadian justice policy, such as Community Justice Centres, which move justice out of the traditional courtroom into a community setting.

More information about Justice System Support can be found in the full Departmental Plan.