By: Ashima Shukla, Staff Writer
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government tabled its first federal budget on November 4.
A few months ago, he remarked that Canada is facing a moment of “rupture” — seeing “the arrival of a ‘new age of economic nationalism and mercantilism’ and described the current moment as an ‘age of adversity.’” Much of the growing economic instability stems from the ongoing US-Canada trade tensions and American tariffs. To confront these challenges, Budget 2025 proposes a major shift in Canada’s financial strategy by targeting investments at enhancing competitiveness, self-sufficiency, and resilience.
To that end, it outlines “$141 billion in new spending over the next five years,” along with “$60 billion in cuts and savings.” Major investments include expanded military funding, support for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, and capital investments into projects for new ports, mines, and LNG terminals. The budget also introduces investments for youth training and employment, while reducing targets for temporary foreign worker and international student programs. Projecting a $78-billion deficit this fiscal year, the budget has faced widespread backlash across the political spectrum. This piece outlines the key criticisms of the budget.
Unions say job cuts will hurt essential services and workers
A main point of criticism is the government’s plan to eliminate between 40–57,000 public-sector jobs. The Public Service Alliance of Canada, one of the country’s largest unions, said the proposed cuts would “eliminate vital programs and services,” “weaken Canada’s social safety net,” and “hurt workers, families, and communities across Canada.” Leaders from the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, and the Association of Justice Counsel also argue that the plan does not protect jobs in sectors already vulnerable to automation, privatization, and foreign investment pressures.
Additionally, the Canadian Union of Public Employees warned that sharp reductions in staffing will exacerbate the pressure on front-line workers and “provincial and municipal services where waitlists, resource and staffing shortages, and burnout rates are already severe.” Similarly, the Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske stated in a press release that “workers and their families will need more support, not less. Slashing public services in the middle of an economic downturn will only make things worse.”
The lack of funding for public healthcare, programs for the unhoused, and a national caregiving strategy for seniors has also sparked concerns. Founder and CEO of Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce Nancy Wilson told Rabble,
“Cuts to the federal service will hit women, Indigenous, and racialized workers the hardest.”
— Nancy Wilson, founder and CEO of Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce
Profit over climate commitments and Indigenous rights
Students and climate advocacy groups have also raised concerns about plans to scale back on existing environmental protections. In a press release by Change Course, students across eight campuses have criticized the proposed increases in defence spending and industrial expansion, calling on Canada’s big five banks “to stop financing fossil fuel expansion and respect Indigenous Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, particularly by rejecting new LNG projects such as the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission, which the Gitxsan and Gitanyow Nations oppose.”
In the press release, Natasha Ivkov from SFU350 said, “The federal budget is doubling down, watering down climate plans, putting billions into making it easier to build fossil fuels infrastructure like pipelines, while RBC keeps financing new pipelines like PRGT. Together they’re locking us into more climate chaos, more danger, and fewer futures.”
Meanwhile, Indigenous leaders and organizations like Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and National Association of Friendship Centres have spoken out on impending funding “sunsets” on key programs. Yellowhead Institute specifically criticized the lack of transparency regarding funding for Indigenous affairs: “Just six months into his term as Prime Minister, Carney has shown exactly who he plans to befriend, and it’s not Indigenous people.”
Immigration services and refugee support scaled back
The budget also unveils a major shift in immigration planning: reducing over 10,000 humanitarian spots for permanent residence, potentially cutting support for refugee healthcare, and reducing study permits in half. Doctors without Borders and Cooperation Canada warn that proposed cuts for international assistance and global health programs would “cause long-term, irreversible harm, leaving vulnerable communities without essential medical care, food, and protection at a time when global needs have dramatically risen.”
Syed Hussan, spokesperson for Migrant Rights Network, has also called attention to the budget proposing over 3,300 job cuts for Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada while hiring 1,000 Canada Border Services Agency officers and raising the recruit stipend.
“Slashing immigration numbers won’t make housing more affordable or improve services — and the data from the last year proves this.”
— Syed Hussan, spokesperson for Migrant Rights Network
Despite these wide-ranging concerns and mixed reactions from opposition parties, the minority Liberals won the confidence vote on the budget (170 to 168) on November 17, averting a winter election. As AP News noted, “the Liberals don’t have a majority of seats in the House of Commons and must rely on an opposition party to pass legislation” moving forward. “The last time a budget vote triggered an election in Canada was in 1979.”
