Minister's Office budget

Shortly following your appointment, you will receive a letter from the Treasury Board outlining the allocations for your Ministerial budget, which will be divided into five parts:

1. Ministerial exempt staff salary budget;
2. Ministerial operating budget, which covers all operating expenditures related to the conduct of the portfolio or other official government departmental business;
3. Students salary;
4. Minister’s salary and motorcar allowance (controlled separately); and,
5. Minister’s regional exempt staff and operating budgets if the Minister is designated a Regional Minister (controlled separately).

Please note, this is in addition to, and separate from, entitlements that you have as a Member of Parliament.

Within this overall limit communicated by the Treasury Board regarding ministerial budget, funds can also be transferred among the exempt staff budget, and the operating budget.

A Minister’s budget is subject to the same provisions of the Financial Administration Act that apply to all departmental funds and to associated Treasury Board policies, and Ministers are individually responsible and accountable for expenditures made for their offices. A Minister’s budget may also only be used for portfolio and other official government business and is to be spent with high standards of prudence and probity.

You may choose to delegate, pursuant to the Financial Administration Act, financial authorities for expenditures to your Chief of Staff or other exempt staff (with the exception of hiring, determination of salaries and salary increases, or termination of exempt staff).

Publication on departmental websites is mandatory for travel and hospitality expenses for Minister’s, Parliamentary Secretaries and all exempt staff.  The Department will assist in the development of attestations for each of your staff, which will be provided to your office for approval, on a monthly basis, prior to publication. Additionally, contracts entered into by the Government of Canada for amounts over $10,000 (with only limited exceptions, such as national security) are also published on the federal government’s website. 

The Chief Financial Officer will also provide you (or your delegated authority) with regular financial reports on the status of your budget (including up-to-date expenditures and forecasts based on trends), and will assist your office in responding to the quarterly requirement from the Treasury Board Secretariat to report on Ministerial budgets.

The Department is available at your convenience to discuss any financial inquiries you may have, and will seek to brief your office as soon as your budgetary limits have been received from the Treasury Board.