About the Treasury Board of Canada

The Treasury Board is a Cabinet committee of the Queen’s Privy Council of Canada. It was established in 1867 and given statutory powers in 1869.

The Treasury Board is responsible for accountability and ethics, financial, personnel and administrative management, comptrollership, approving regulations and most Orders-in-Council.

The formal role of the President is to chair the Treasury Board. The President carries out the responsibility for the management of the government by translating the policies and programs approved by Cabinet into operational reality and by providing departments with the resources and the administrative environment they need to do their work. The Treasury Board has an administrative arm, the Secretariat, which was part of the Department of Finance until it was proclaimed a department in 1966.