Police services and municipal agencies across the country will see $39.7 million to protect young people from being exploited online.
Canada's Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness David McGuinty announced the investment on Friday.
"Online child sexual exploitation and abuse is a heinous crime with devastating consequences for victims and survivors," McGuinty said. "We are committed to ensuring that partners like C3P (Canadian Centre for Child Protection) and our law enforcement agencies have the resources they need to continue their critical work to keep our children safe."
Local Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Units will see $21.5 million of that funding over the next two years. According to the government, the money will help to hire and train more staff and purchase the specialized tools and equipment necessary to support their investigations.
The largest portion, over $7.5 million, is slated for the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). Quebec received more than $5.5 million. The smallest amount, at $505,264 went to the Kennebecasis Regional Police Service.
The remaining $18.2 million will go to C3P over the next four years.
C3P provides public education and assists survivors and their families through advocacy, research, and resources. It has been a key partner under the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet (National Strategy) since its inception in 2004.
"These funds enable us to not only operate Cybertip.ca as a lifeline for young Canadians, but also to be a strong voice in the push for safer digital spaces," said C3P Executive Director Lianna McDonald.
Cybertip.ca is the national tip line for reporting suspected cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children. Since March 2024, the site has received a total of 421,413 reports from the public.
C3P also runs Project Arachnid, a tool used to search the web for images of child sexual abuse and flag them for removal. Project Arachnid has processed more than 173 billion images and issued over 47 million takedown notices in the last year.