Press Release: Who wins in Canada’s new budget era?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Fora: Network for Change responds to the 2025 Federal Budget”
TORONTO, November 12, 2025 — On November 4th, the Carney government tabled its long-awaited federal budget, the first in 18 months, outlining spending plans and priorities mainly for the coming fiscal year, setting the tone for up until 2030. As new graduates face an unemployment crisis following a series of economic shocks, and socioeconomic supports strain under the precarity of our modern and forecasted economy, young women and gender-diverse Canadians are searching for stability, support, and hope in the federal budget.
Evaluating the budget against our young feminist economy framework, which demands intersectional feminist analysis, prosperity focused design, and equitable execution; we find the budget to be a mixed bag of wins and losses, making welcome steps in the right direction yet leaving room to create and secure key opportunities for young women and gender diverse youth across Canada to weather the ongoing economic crisis and prosper in the economy of tomorrow.
Intersectional Feminist Analysis
Fora was pleased to join Minister Valdez and Minister Champagne in Ottawa last month for a significant announcement of stable, predictable and consistent funding for Women and Gender Equality Canada. This was reflected in Budget 2025 through a consistent annual allotment of $132 million to WAGE for the next five years. We celebrate and welcome this decision and recognize its importance in resourcing critical programs and support for gender equality, addressing gender-based violence, and protecting the 2SLGBTQ+ community. This decision meets the demands for stable financing of gender equality work, providing much-needed relief for national feminist organizations and young women and gender-diverse youth, who make up a significant part of the sector’s beneficiaries and labour force.
We are also pleased to see that 53% of budget measures were supported by Gender Based Analysis Plus at the early stages, a 14% increase from the previous budget. We welcome the continued effort to align budget measures with the Gender Results Framework Goals. Notably, 13 of the 158 listed measures contribute to these goals, highlighting a clear opportunity to expand and align more measures toward achieving them. Additionally, we applaud the recognition of economic abuse in the budget, marking a key milestone in understanding and addressing barriers to young women’s financial independence and prosperity.
Alongside these positive steps, shortfalls include a concerning lack of continued funding for programs that have proved critical to women’s workforce participation and financial prosperity. These include the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program and a lack of long-term renewal funding for the Urban Programming for Indigenous Peoples (UPIP), which provides resources to Friendship Centres that provide critical employment and economic supports for Indigenous youth and women.
Prosperity Focused Design
Build Canada Homes - A necessary and historic investment in addressing Canada’s housing crisis with the urgency and care it requires. We appreciate the government’s intention to incorporate GBA+ in the execution of Build Canada Homes and recognize this measure as a critical investment in the prosperity of youth across Canada.
Youth Unemployment - We are pleased to see the government’s significant commitment to boosting the Canada Summer Jobs program, as well as continued investments in the Student Work Placement Program and Youth Employment Skills Strategy. These programs are critical in supporting youth navigating a tough and demoralizing job market. We hope to see the government expand on this approach by renewing funding for these programs in subsequent years and earmarking investments in youth-focused initiatives that help prepare young women and gender-marginalized youth to prosper in the economy of tomorrow. Examples of such investments include dedicated funds for skills development and training programs that tackle gendered barriers to youth career building and meaningful employment.
Climate Justice - Budget 2025 makes progress through its commitment towards strengthening industrial carbon pricing, reducing methane emissions and earmarking a small short-term investment in green jobs for youth through the Youth Climate Corps., However, this budget also increases fossil fuel production subsidies, offsetting the projected positive impact. Climate Change is consistently the number one issue of concern for youth, and addressing it is integral to their prosperity.
Equitable Execution
Gender Equality - This budget is meant to define spending under the theme of nation-building for a strong and resilient Canada. Although there are considerable positive investments in gender equality, a clear disparity exists in which Canadians are most expected to participate in and benefit from this era of nation-building. According to the impact report, of the budget measures, 38 are expected to disproportionately benefit men, with 60-79% of their beneficiaries expected to be men.
Notably, these measures include significant investments in leading industries such as Artificial Intelligence, Manufacturing, High-Growth Companies, Technology, and Finance. We hope to see the government recognize the importance of investing in skills training for young women and gender marginalized youth to encourage their labour force participation in these key sectors.
Youth - Despite youth facing the worst job market in decades, the budget earmarks less than a billion dollars' worth of investment in youth employment out of a total $141.4 billion in new spending over the next five years. Gender-marginalized youth are also scarcely listed as primary beneficiaries of budget measures relating to economic security and prosperity compared to other demographics.
Budget 2025 presents an ambitious plan centred on national sovereignty, resilience, and competitiveness in the economy of tomorrow. However, this plan leaves considerable room for the young women and gender diverse youth labour force to be fully utilized and mobilized in its pursuit of a strong Canada. This demographic represents a valuable asset to nation-building and should be invested in accordingly. We commend the positive steps taken in Budget 2025 and look forward to working with the government to ensure that young women and gender diverse youth are equitably included and resourced to prosper in and alongside Canada.