Trudeau government unveils plans to divert money from some departments for new priorities

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has unveiled how it plans to spend billions of dollars in the coming year and where it plans to reduce spending, including plans to divert $2.5 billion from a variety of departments toward government priorities.

«What we want to do is take the savings… across ministries and put them towards the priorities you are seeing in our main estimates,» Treasury Board President Anita Anand told reporters. «That is affordable housing, that is health care, that is supports for seniors.»

Overall, the government expects to spend $449.2 billion in the coming year, up from the $432.9 billion it planned to spend this year and down from the $492.6 billion that it ended up allocating.

That amount is likely to change over the course of the year once Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveils her budget this spring and the government tables supplementary estimates to address issues that arrive over the course of the year.

Among the spending envelopes the government highlighted is $5.6 billion for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and $8.4 billion for Health Canada — part of which will fund expansion of the Canadian Dental Care Plan.

Meanwhile, a number of departments and agencies risk big spending cuts in the coming year.

The Public Health Agency of Canada, whose budget swelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, will see its spending drop to $1.8 billion from $5 billion — a 63 per cent reduction. That's still nearly three times more than the $641.8 million it was allocated in the 2020/21 main estimates before the pandemic.

The departments of Indigenous Services and Crown Indigenous Relations are set to receive more than 50 per cent less than they ended up being allocated over the past year. Those