Budget 2025

Building Momentum for Kids in Canada: Budget 2025 and the Path Ahead

Budget 2025 includes several welcome measures that will make life more secure for families and children in Canada. Inspiring Healthy Futures (IHF) celebrates these positive steps—and sees them as a foundation to build on as we work toward a more comprehensive national approach to children’s health and well-being.

We are encouraged to see the federal government make the National School Food Program permanent, ensuring that hundreds of thousands of children have access to nutritious meals each day. The introduction of automatic federal benefits for low-income families will also make a meaningful difference for children who too often fall through administrative cracks. And new bereavement leave provisions for parents acknowledge, in compassionate and practical ways, the realities families face when navigating profound loss.

These commitments move us closer to a Canada where every child has the supports needed to grow up healthy, supported, and hopeful.

Strengthening Economic Protections for Families

Rising living costs continue to put pressure on families. IHF’s pre-budget submission urged additional steps—such as increasing the Canada Child Benefit for lower-income families, expanding community-led nutrition initiatives, and stabilizing funding for child- and family-serving organizations.

While these measures were not included this year, Budget 2025’s new automatic benefits represent a meaningful modernization of income supports. Building on this foundation, future budgets can continue to strengthen the financial and service infrastructure that keeps families resilient.

Expanding Access to Mental Health Supports

The youth mental health crisis remains one of the defining challenges of our time. IHF had called for a sustained expansion of the Youth Mental Health Action Fund, with explicit inclusion of infants and young children, and greater support for Indigenous- and family-led models of care.

While we welcome increased supports for unemployed youth, it is important to recognize that Indigenous youth continue to experience disproportionately high rates of suicide—a reality that demands targeted, sustained, and culturally grounded investment.

Budget 2025 offers no new funding in this area, but renewed federal attention to workforce and community investments creates an opening to ensure that future mental health strategies are inclusive of children from the very start. Continued collaboration across health, education, and social sectors will be key to turning that opportunity into action.

Investing in Data and Research for Children’s Health

A healthy future for children depends on strong, evidence-driven systems. IHF recommended a $24 million investment to enhance Canada’s child health research infrastructure—including support for CIHR’s Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health, and new waves of the Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth.

Although these investments were not part of this year’s budget, the government’s emphasis on research, innovation, and data modernization sets the stage for integrating child health indicators more systematically in future federal research priorities.

Advancing Reconciliation Through Sustained Commitments

Jordan’s Principle and the Inuit Child First Initiative remain two of the most successful examples of how policy can improve equity and access to care. IHF continues to call for long-term, indexed funding to sustain and scale these programs—ensuring every Indigenous child receives timely, culturally grounded services.

While Budget 2025 did not expand these investments, its broader focus on infrastructure, workforce, and northern access provides opportunities to embed child-first principles into future reconciliation initiatives.

Looking Forward

UNICEF’s 2025 Report Card 19 ranks Canada 24th in physical health and 33rd in adolescent suicide among high-income countries—clear reminders that our progress depends on policy choices.

Budget 2025 delivers important wins for families and begins to modernize the social infrastructure that underpins children’s well-being. Now is the moment to build on that momentum—with coordinated, measurable investments in child health, mental health, research, and equity.

Because when we invest in children, we invest in Canada’s future.

About Inspiring Healthy Futures

Inspiring Healthy Futures is a pan-Canadian, cross-sectoral network of champions committed to improving the well-being of children and youth. Hosted by Children’s Healthcare Canada, IHF convenes partners across research, policy, practice, and lived experience to drive measurable systems change and ensure children’s voices and needs are reflected in Canada’s most important decisions.