Question Period Note: Performance Pay for Executives

Why did the Government spend $146.3 million on performance pay for federal executives in 2024–2025?

• Performance pay is a common component of executive compensation in private and public sector organizations.
• A portion of executives’ compensation (on average about 11%) is held back each year and only paid if executives meet the expectations outlined in their performance agreements.
• A small proportion of executives (about 7% in 2024-2025) who demonstrate exceptional performance may also receive a bonus.

Performance pay is a key component of executive compensation in the federal public service. It is not an automatic entitlement. Each year, a portion of executives’ total compensation is held back and only paid once it is confirmed that they have met the performance objectives outlined in their performance agreements. This ensures accountability for results.
In addition to this base amount, a smaller portion of executives, those who exceed expectations, may receive a bonus. Bonuses are the only fully discretionary component of performance pay.
Executives do not receive performance pay when their performance does not meet expectations or cannot be assessed for a variety of reasons (for example, when an executive is absent from the job for a significant portion of the performance cycle).
On January 30, 2026, TBS published the results of the Performance Management Program for Executives (EXPMP) for 2024-2025 on Canada.ca. In the 2024-2025 performance pay cycle, 7,987 executives (98.1%) in the core public administration (CPA) received performance pay, including 559 (6.9%) who received a bonus for exceptional performance. In comparison, in the 2023-2024 performance pay cycle, 7,960 executives (97.4%) across the CPA earned performance pay with 623 (7.6%) of them receiving a bonus.
The total spending for executive performance pay was $146.3M, including $3.4M for bonuses, which is an increase of $3.8M (+2.7%) compared to 2023-2024. The increase is primarily due to:
• Salary adjustments that account for $3.7M (95.2%) of the total increase in performance pay expenditures. The salary increases align with those provided to the majority of employees across the federal public service.

• 0.3% increase in the number of executives who received performance pay, from 7,960 to 7,987 that accounts for $0.5M (12.6%) of the total increase in performance pay expenditures.
In 2024-2025, the average performance pay per executive increased from $17,869 to $18,316 (+2.4%). On average, executives in the CPA received performance pay equal to 10.7% of their salary, well below the 19.7% average received by executives in other Canadian public and private sector organizations.
The Government of Canada has fully paid out performance pay or bonuses for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

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