Children and families
Early learning and child care funding to provinces and territories, the national school food program and the Children's Special Allowance.
Headline figures
Fiscal year 2024–25
$7.3B
1.5% of the $474.4B of federal program spending reported by theme, across 2 programs.
Cost per tax filer uses 29,965,100 tax filers (2023, the latest count published); per person uses a population of 41,162,593 (2024). It is an allocation of cost, not a tax bill.
Spending programs
Actual spending by program in 2024–25: operating costs, capital and payments to others, as reported by each department and reconciled to the Public Accounts. Select a program for its history and cost per taxpayer.
Grants and contributions
Payments to provinces, organizations and individuals in 2024–25, by transfer payment program, from the Public Accounts. These are a different cut of the same money as the programs above, so the two lists are not added together. Select one to see its largest recipients.
Payments to provinces and territories for the purpose of Early Learning and Child Care
Department of Employment and Social Development
$7.2B
93.5% of list$241per tax filer$175per person(S) Children's Special Allowance payments (Children's Special Allowance Act)
Canada Revenue Agency (Adm. Activities)
$430M
5.6% of list$14.35per tax filer$10.45per person(S) Payments under bilateral agreement for a national school food program (Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1, Section 154)
Department of Employment and Social Development
$70.1M
0.9% of list$2.34per tax filer$1.70per personEarly Learning and Child Care Data and Research Program
Department of Employment and Social Development
$372K
0.0% of list$0.01per tax filer<$0.01per personPayments to provinces and territories for the National School Food Program
Department of Employment and Social Development
$20K
0.0% of list<$0.01per tax filer<$0.01per person
Sources and basis
- GC InfoBase - Open Datasets, retrieved 2026-11-03. Open Government Licence - Canada. Program spending is reconciled to Public Accounts expenditures by vote for every organization and year. It excludes Employment Insurance benefits, the Canada Child Benefit and other items that are not appropriated, so it differs from the budget tables.
- Detailed information on Transfer Payments, as per the Public Accounts of Canada, retrieved 2026-11-03. Open Government Licence - Canada.
- Themes group programs by purpose, not by department. Each program is assigned to one theme by a published, reviewable rule set.