Canada unveils CAD33.8 billion defence budget for 2024–25

Actual and planned Canadian defence spending by category from 2021–22 to 2026–27. (Janes)

The Canadian government released its fiscal year (FY) 2024 defence budget on 16 April. The document projects spending of CAD33.8 billion (USD24.6 billion) in 2024–25, including adjustments from the Budget 2023 Refocusing Government Spending Exercise and incremental funding in the 2024 budget, although it warns that forecast amounts may change as programmes move through implementation. This is an increase from the forecast CAD29.9 billion spending in 2023–24, according to the document.

The 2024–25 main estimates produced by the Treasury Board projected defence spending of CAD30.6 billion, a small increase from the latest spending estimate for 2023–24, which totalled CAD30.3 billion. This is a 14% increase over the initial 2023–24 main estimate of CAD26.5 billion, according to Treasury Board figures. Expenditures in 2022–23 totalled CAD26.9 billion.

The 2024–25 estimate includes CAD20.3 billion for operating expenditures and CAD7.21 billion for capital expenditures, up slightly from the most recent 2023–24 estimate of CAD19.5 billion for operations and CAD7.19 billion in capital expenditures. These represent increases from the initial 2023–24 main estimates of CAD17.9 billion and CAD6.1 billion respectively. Spending in 2022–23 totalled CAD18.5 billion for operations and CAD4.9 billion for capital projects.

The Department of National Defence (DND) budget is further broken down into “core responsibilities”. This includes CAD11.3 billion, or 37% of the budget, for combat-ready forces; CAD6.2 billion, or 20% of the budget, for procurement; CAD4.5 billion, or 15% of the budget, for developing and fielding modern, sustainable bases and infrastructure; CAD4 billion, or 14% of the budget, for personnel; CAD2.3 billion, or 7% of the budget, for operations; CAD1.2 billion, or 4% of the budget, for internal services; and CAD866 million, or 3% of the budget, for future force design.