{"id":547610,"date":"2026-03-19T21:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/547610\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T21:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:50:15","slug":"to-chop-spending-ottawa-will-cut-science-tourism-foreign-aid-programs-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/547610\/","title":{"rendered":"To chop spending, Ottawa will cut science, tourism, foreign aid programs &#8211; National"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The federal government has tabled details of how it plans to cut billions of dollars from programs that support science, tourism, harbour improvements, journalism, foreign aid, and even the development of a Canadian-made lunar rover module.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The cuts are detailed in hundreds of pages of departmental plans tabled in the House of Commons last Friday as MPs were preparing to return to their ridings for March break week.<\/p>\n<p>Global News has analyzed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/treasury-board-secretariat\/services\/planned-government-spending\/reports-plans-priorities\/2026-27-departmental-plans.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">departmental plans<\/a> of more than 80 federal government departments and agencies, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/treasury-board-secretariat\/services\/planned-government-spending\/government-expenditure-plan-main-estimates\/2026-27-estimates.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the government\u2019s 2026-27 spending plan<\/a> that was tabled in the House on March 3.<\/p>\n<p>Together, those sets of documents paint a picture of a Carney government that has clearly set significantly different spending priorities from its predecessor, with a heavy focus on national defence \u2014 year-over-year defence spending will jump nearly 12 per cent, or $5.3 billion \u2014 while dialling back spending on health, the environment and funding for regional economic development.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to be ambitious in our investments and rigorous in our spending,\u201d Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne said as he tabled the 2026-27 budget on Nov. 4, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is why this budget charts a new course for Canada\u2019s public finances. Canadians expect their government to achieve results. To get there, we must spend less on operations so we can invest more in Canada\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Canada spending $200M on space launch pad, cuts funds elsewhere'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ONLINE_STILL_SPACE_PROGRAM.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:02<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanada spending $200M on space launch pad, cuts funds elsewhere\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The spending plan, known in Parliament as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/treasury-board-secretariat\/services\/planned-government-spending\/government-expenditure-plan-main-estimates\/2026-27-estimates.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the main estimates,<\/a> shows that 85 departments will collectively receive about $31 billion less in the fiscal year that begins April 1 relative to the spending levels already approved for the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you&#8217;ll never miss the day&#8217;s top stories.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, about 40 departments will collectively see their spending budgets jump by about $23 billion in 2026-27.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/treasury-board-secretariat\/services\/planned-government-spending\/reports-plans-priorities\/2026-27-departmental-plans.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The departmental plans<\/a> provide details on how each organization will carry out its business plans with the funding provided.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/employment-social-development\/corporate\/reports\/departmental-plan\/2026-2027.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Employment and Social Development Canada<\/a>, for example, said it expects to save $1.4 billion \u201clargely due to the sunsetting of temporary program funding, including the Early Learning and Child Care Program and Canada Summer Jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca\/dp-pm\/2026-27\/index-eng.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Fisheries and Oceans will spend $371 million less<\/a> over the next two years on its small craft harbours program.<\/p>\n<p>Global Affairs Canada <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11736135\/global-affairs-more-risk-uncertain-climate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">will reduce its workforce by seven per cent,<\/a> or 887 people, over the next two years and allow several overseas programs to \u201csunset,\u201d such as Canada\u2019s International Climate Finance Commitment. Sunsetting that program alone will save $812 million.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Space Agency has had its budget cut by $400 million, or more than one-third, and cancelled further work on a lunar rover discovery vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>But many of the other cuts are smaller as the government ends myriad support programs, including:<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada will end its Agriculture Climate Solution Living Labs program, a program set up in 2021 with an annual budget of about $18 million.The government will not renew the $60-million-a-year Wine Sector Support Program.The Local Food Infrastructure \u2014 which gave community groups grants of up to $500,000 for greenhouses, cold storage and processing equipment \u2014 will end.The $36-million-a-year Tourism Growth Program will end. It provided grants to tourism businesses to develop new products and services.The Department of Canadian Heritage will make reductions in the Canada Cultural Space Fund, Canada Media Fund, Canada Periodical Fund and Local Journalism, realizing savings of $76 million by 2028-29. Meanwhile, the CBC will get $192 million less next year, a seven per cent spending cut.Library and Archives Canada will cut its spending by nearly $50 million over the next three years, partly by ending the Documentary Heritage Communities Program and reducing Access to Information and Privacy functions.\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Politics<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Almost all agencies and departments that have had their budgets cut plan to reduce their employee headcount and be more efficient with their reduced funding.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Assessing Mark Carney\u2019s first year as Prime Minister'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WEB_LORI_TURNBULL-SOT.png\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t7:25<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAssessing Mark Carney\u2019s first year as Prime Minister\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The biggest losers, so far as having their budgets cut, are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/revenue-agency\/corporate\/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra\/departmental-plan\/2026-27-cra-departmental-plan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Canada Revenue Agency<\/a> (down $4.3 billion, or 41 per cent, versus spending approved so far for 2025-26); Fisheries and Oceans ($4.3 billion, or 69 per cent); <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sac-isc.gc.ca\/eng\/1767990598033\/1773090600238\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Indigenous Services<\/a> ($3 billion, or 11 per cent), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca\/eng\/1768404784619\/1768404833070\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Crown-Indigenous Relations<\/a> ($2.7 billion, or 19 pere cent) and Global Affairs Canada ($2.1 billion, or 23 per cent).<\/p>\n<p>The biggest winners are the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/department-finance\/corporate\/transparency\/plans-performance\/departmental-plans\/2026-2027\/dp-combined.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Department of Finance<\/a> (up $8.5 billion, or 5.7 per cent), Employment and Social Development ($5.7 billion, or 5.4 per cent) and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/department-national-defence\/corporate\/reports-publications\/departmental-plans\/departmental-plan-2026-27.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Department of National Defence<\/a> ($5.3 billion, or 11.6 per cent).<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government has tabled details of how it plans to cut billions of dollars from programs that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[90915,49,48,2659,20739,714],"class_list":["post-547610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-budget-2026","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mark-carney","tag-ottawa","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}