National Film Board’s 2026-27 Departmental Plan

From the Minister

Core responsibilities and internal services:

Core responsibility: Interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations

Description

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a federal cultural agency mandated to interpret Canada to Canadians and to the world through the production and distribution of original, innovative audiovisual works. As both a public media producer and a steward of Canada’s audiovisual heritage, the NFB plays a central role in shaping our national identity and reflecting the country’s diversity and complexity.  

The NFB fosters civic dialogue, promotes social cohesion and showcases Canadian creativity and perspectives to global audiences. Its non-commercial mandate allows it to prioritize cultural, historical and social relevance over commercial content, making space for bold, artist-driven storytelling that addresses contemporary issues.  

The NFB amplifies regional voices and ensures linguistic and cultural representation through its decentralized, pan-Canadian production network. Its strategic investments in education, innovation and public accessibility, including its free streaming platform and national archive, solidify its place as a cornerstone of Canada’s cultural infrastructure.  

The NFB fulfills its core responsibility by producing works that connect people, deepen understanding and serve the public good, at home and around the world.  

Quality of life impacts

his core responsibility contributes to the Society domain of Canada’s Quality of Life Framework (particular, to the indicators “Sense of pride in Canada,” “Sense of belonging to Canada,” “Shared values” and “Sense of belonging to local community”) through all of the activities mentioned in the description of this core responsibility. It also contributes to the Good Governance domain and, more specifically, to the indicator “Canada’s place in the world,” because it includes all the actions the NFB takes so that its productions can be viewed and enjoyed around the world.

Indicators, results and targets

This section presents details on the department’s indicators, the actual results from the three most recently reported fiscal years, the targets and target dates for to make Canada known and understood to the Canadian population and to other nations. Details are presented by departmental result.

Table 1: NFB productions reflect the richness and diversity of Canada’s geographic and cultural identities.

Table 1 provides a summary of the target and actual results for each indicator associated with the results under Interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations.

Table 2: The NFB engages the public, both online and in person, in Canada and around the world

Table 2 provides a summary of the target and actual results for each indicator associated with the results under Interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations.

Table 3: NFB film collection and archive are preserved and their longevity and accessibility are assured for future generations

Table 3 provides a summary of the target and actual results for each indicator associated with the results under Interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations.

Table 4: Schools and educators throughout Canada use NFB content for teaching and learning

Table 4 provides a summary of the target and actual results for each indicator associated with the results under Interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations.

Additional information on the detailed results and performance information for the NFB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Plans to achieve results

The following section describes the planned results to make Canada known and understood to the Canadian population and to other nations in 2026-27.  

Gender-based Analysis Plus

The core responsibility “Interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations” has many positive impacts on gender parity and diversity. The NFB has made various commitments to promote equitable representation of voices that are marginalized or underrepresented in the Canadian film industry, such as those of women, Indigenous people, filmmakers who identify as Black or as People of Colour, and members of official-language minority communities. To measure these positive impacts, the NFB relies on data from its internal databases (such as those associated with its financial systems) and from its self-identification questionnaire. In 2023, the NFB began inviting the filmmakers, artists and production-crew members with whom it works to complete this questionnaire in order to collect data on their Indigenous, racial and ethnic identity; disability status; gender identity and expression; belonging to the 2SLGBTQI+ community; and belonging to official-language minority communities. During the first two years that this questionnaire was used, nearly 80% of the filmmakers agreed to fill it out, which enabled the NFB to evaluate and report on the effect of its commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion. In 2026–27, the NFB will use these same procedures to measure and report the impacts of its core responsibility on gender and diversity.

Planned resources to achieve results

Table 5: Planned resources to achieve results to interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations

Table 5 provides a summary of the planned spending and full-time equivalents required to achieve results.

Complete financial and human resources information for the NFB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Program inventory

Interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations is supported by the following programs:

• Production;
• Audience Engagement;
• Preservation;
• Education.

Additional information related to the program inventory to interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations is available on the Results page on GC InfoBase.

Summary of changes to reporting framework since last year

• The core responsibilities “Audiovisual Programming and Production” and “Content Accessibility and Audience Engagement” have been merged into a single responsibility: “Interpret Canada to Canadians and Other Nations.” The main reason for this merger was to directly reflect the NFB’s legislated mandate rather than its operational functions.
• This new structure highlights the NFB’s primary public-service mission and reinforces its unique cultural role in the Canadian audiovisual ecosystem.
• The departmental results have been harmonized with the societal impacts that the NFB is trying to achieve.
• The indicators have been revised to place greater emphasis on tracking of current productions and actual engagement of audiences. This revision is based on best practices regarding identity-based data.
• The NFB has adopted a four-program structure to better reflect the organization’s main activities: Production, Audience Engagement, Conservation and Education.
• Two former programs (“Distribution of works and audience engagement” and “Promotion of works and National Film Board outreach”) have been merged into a single program: “Audience Engagement.” This merger is intended to better reflect the NFB’s efforts to make its works better known and to build ties with audiences.
• The Education program has been added because education is central to the NFB’s public-service mission and the fulfilment of its mandate.
• Updates have been made to replace outmoded terms with a vocabulary that more accurately reflects the NFB’s current activities and can be more readily understood by the public.

Internal services

Description

Internal services are the services that are provided within a department so that it can meet its corporate obligations and deliver its programs. There are 10 categories of internal services:

• acquisition management services
• communications services
• financial management services
• human resources management services
• information management services
• information technology services
• legal services
• material management services
• management and oversight services
• real property management services

Plans to achieve results

This section presents details the department’s plans to achieve results and meet targets for internal services.

In 2026–27, the NFB will continue to implement its three-year strategic plan. Guided by four strategic priorities for increasing the NFB’s impact and meeting the changing needs of the Canadian public, this plan is built on core principles that serve as a foundation and guide for all of the NFB’s activities.  

Below are the main priorities for the NFB’s internal services in 2026–27.  

Strong governance

The NFB plans to strengthen the governance of its committees by clarifying their mandates and better defining their roles. It will thereby enhance its ability to implement its strategic priorities while grounding its decisions in a shared vision and optimizing its organizational effectiveness.   

Starting in 2026–27, the NFB’s strategic planning will be fully harmonized with its new Departmental Results Framework (DRF). This new accountability structure provides a clear framework for planning programs, allocating resources and measuring performance in a manner consistent with the NFB’s financial and human capacities.  

The NFB’s Business Intelligence unit will support informed decision making throughout the organization. This unit will ensure a shared understanding of the organization’s impact and its key performance indicators.  

A stimulating workplace

In 2026–27, as in past years, the NFB will continue to invest in its staff and provide the resources and training needed to nurture and develop talent.  

One of the steps that the NFB will take in this regard will be to support employees who want to pursue individual development plans. These plans provide support and structure for developing the skills and advancing the careers of the organization’s staff.   

The NFB will also begin offering leadership-development training to employees who want to become managers and to managers who want to develop their abilities. The training for managers will place particular emphasis on developing fundamental management skills, including those related to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI).  

An organization grounded in equity, diversity and respect 

Incorporating EDI skills development into leadership development is one of the many actions provided for in the NFB’s EDI plan. This plan is now entering its third year of implementation, and its fundamental objective remains the same: to improve employees’ sense of psychological safety and feelings of belonging and trust in the organization.  

One of the various actions planned for fiscal year 2026–27 will be to add key EDI performance indicators that will apply to all staff. The NFB will also deploy its anti-racism and anti-discrimination policy, which includes a section on anti-Black racism that has been developed in collaboration with the Black Screen Office.

In the coming year, the NFB will be implementing its 2026–28 Accessibility Plan, which is based on concrete actions for the coming years, including practices for recruiting and integrating employees with disabilities, and procurement practices, which will be harmonized with accessibility standards. Two other noteworthy NFB commitments: updating the nfb.ca/onf.ca website so that it meets accessibility standards and providing employees with training to increase inclusion in the workplace. 

A commitment to environmental sustainability

In 2026–27, the NFB will publish its third report on the implementation of its 2023–27 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy. The NFB will also contribute to the development of the 2027–29 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, in accordance with the schedules set by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The NFB will start creating an information kit on best environmental practices in audiovisual production for its employees and partners. This kit will be designed to provide a better understanding of the environmental footprint of audiovisual-production activities and to encourage the adoption of practices that reduce their environmental impact. 

An innovation-focused organization

The NFB is an incubator of ideas: innovation structures its approaches, inspires its initiatives and guides the way it designs and transforms its practices. The NFB Innovation Lab works with the entire organization to give it the tools that will allow it to optimize its efficiency and accelerate the implementation of its 2025–28 Strategic Plan. In this spirit, the Lab will continue to provide support to the NFB’s various teams and its priority projects in 2026–27. It will participate in conferences to share its expertise and communicate the results of its research and other efforts to the audiovisual industry.

Planned resources to achieve results  

Complete financial and human resources information for the NFB’s program inventory is available on GC InfoBase.

Planning for contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses

To achieve the mandatory objective of awarding at least 5% of the total value of its contracts to Indigenous businesses, the NFB systematically incorporates this requirement into its annual procurement planning. Starting with the definition of its requirements, the NFB identifies categories of purchases—in particular for professional services, audiovisual production and technical support—in which Indigenous suppliers are present or can be invited to bid. When appropriate, the NFB uses the procurement set-aside mechanisms provided by the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business and raises awareness among its teams so that they proactively consider Indigenous suppliers as potential solutions. The NFB is also enhancing its internal tracking tools to accurately measure the contractual value awarded to Indigenous businesses and adjust its practices as needed. Together, these measures are enabling the NFB to make concrete, sustainable progress toward achieving the 5% target set out in Appendix E of the Directive on the Management of Procurement.

Department-wide considerations

Related government priorities

Artificial Intelligence

Over the coming fiscal year, the NFB will work to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into certain projects to increase the organization’s productivity, optimize its processes, improve its delivery of services and achieve its objectives. The NFB seeks to facilitate the ongoing adoption of new practices and new technologies by the entire organization. Thus, in 2026–27, the NFB’s technical teams will pursue the following efforts.

1. Increasing productivity

• In collaboration with the Conservation team, the Innovation Lab will begin deploying AI tools to accelerate cataloguing of audiovisual materials. By automating visual analysis of images and generation of the metadata associated with them, the team will be able to clear a backlog that would otherwise require an increase in resources. 

• For the Education program, the Innovation Lab will continue to test an AI tool for identifying and analyzing intersections between the NFB’s works and provincial and territorial school curriculums. This tool will help the NFB to effectively target opportunities for offering educational products that meet Canadian teachers’ needs while achieving significant gains in productivity. 

 2. Reducing operating costs

• The Innovation Lab will also work on AI tools that will enhance the NFB’s ability to compare production projects in order to optimize decision making about programming. After having examined the NFB’s requirements in this area and developed prototypes, the Innovation Lab will move on to testing them in 2026–27. This project will reduce the risks of errors and optimize the programming process. 

 3. Improving delivery of services

• In 2026–27, the NFB will begin incorporating new functionalities into its free streaming platform, nfb.ca/onf.ca. These will include displaying summaries, thematic and emotional descriptors, and dynamic images of the works streamed from this platform. These functionalities will enable platform users to more quickly and easily choose the films they want to view in accordance with their personal preferences. The development of these functionalities has been driven by AI tools. 

The NFB will also continue its efforts to ensure transparent, responsible AI management by taking the following steps.  

• Training in the safe, effective use of AI: in 2026–27, the NFB will assess the options for providing AI training to all of its employees.  
• Implementing change-management strategies for the adoption and use of AI: the NFB’s AI Governance committee, which is responsible for supervising the use of AI at the NFB, will continue its regular activities in 2026–27. 
• Improving preparation of data to support the use of AI and increase its effectiveness: the NFB will continue to work on its inventory of AI uses and tools, established to ensure transparent, responsible management of this technology. 
• Providing access to AI tools, including those used to develop AI solutions (see the first part of this section). 
• Developing AI policies and strategies: after having adopted its policy on the responsible use of AI, the NFB will go on to implement it.

Planned spending and human resources 

This section provides an overview of the NFB’s planned spending and human resources for the next three fiscal years and of planned spending for 2026-27 with actual spending from previous years.

Spending

This section presents an overview of the department's planned expenditures from 2023-24 to 2028-29.

Graph 1: Planned spending for the core responsibility in 2026-27

Graph 1 presents the department’s planned spending in 2026-27 for the core responsibility and for internal services.  

Budgetary performance summary

Table 8: Three-year spending summary for the core responsibility and internal services (dollars)

Table 8 presents the NFB’s spending over the past three years to carry out its core responsibility and for internal services. Amounts for the 2025–26 fiscal year are forecasted based on spending to date.

More financial information from previous years is available on the Finances section of GC Infobase.

Table 9: Planned three-year spending on the core responsibility and internal services (dollars)

Table 9 presents the NFB’s planned spending over the next three years for the core responsibility and for internal services.

More detailed financial information on planned spending available on the Finances section of GC Infobase.

Funding

This section provides an overview of the department's voted and statutory funding for its core responsibility and for internal services. For further information on funding authorities, consult the Government of Canada budgets and expenditures.

Graph 2: Approved funding (statutory and voted) over a six-year period

Graph 2 summarizes the department's approved voted and statutory funding from 2023-24 to 2028-29.

For further information on the NFB’s departmental appropriations, consult the 2026-27 Main Estimates.

Future-oriented condensed statement of operations

The future-oriented condensed statement of operations provides an overview of the NFB’s operations for 2025-26 to 2026-27.

Table 10: Future-oriented condensed statement of operations for the year ended March 31, 2027 (dollars)

Table 10 summarizes the expenses and revenues which net to the cost of operations before government funding and transfers for 2025-26 to 2026-27. The forecast and planned amounts in this statement of operations were prepared on an accrual basis. The forecast and planned amounts presented in other sections of the Departmental Plan were prepared on an expenditure basis. Amounts may therefore differ.

A more detailed Future-Oriented Statement of Operations and associated Notes for 2026-27, including a reconciliation of the net cost of operations with the requested authorities, is available on the NFB’s website.

Human resources

This section presents an overview of the department’s actual and planned human resources from 2023-24 to 2028-29.

Table 11: Actual human resources for the core responsibility and internal services

Table 11 shows a summary of human resources, in full-time equivalents, for the NFB’s core responsibility and for its internal services for the previous three fiscal years. Human resources for the 2025–26 fiscal year are forecasted based on year to date. 

Table 12: Human resources planning summary for the core responsibility and internal services

Table 12 shows information on human resources, in full-time equivalents, for each of the NFB’s core responsibility and for its internal services planned for the next three years.

Supplementary information tables

Non applicable.

Information on the NFB’s departmental sustainable development strategy can be found on the NFB’s website.

Federal tax expenditures

The NFB’s Departmental Plan does not include information on tax expenditures.

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures.

This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs as well as evaluations and GBA Plus of tax expenditures.

Corporate information

Definitions