Campaign 2000 responds to Federal Budget 2026
November 6, 2026
In Budget 2026, Masters of our Destiny, poverty reduction appears to have fallen off the Carney government’s agenda. This is despite the legislated commitments to reduce poverty by 50% from its 2015 level by 2030. The National Advisory Council on Poverty warns that Canada is not on track to meet this target, confirming modelling from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives indicating that Canada will miss the 2030 target by more than 4 percentage points.
Important investments were announced in housing and childcare, some of which were reiterations of previous announcements such as the $5.4 billion to protect the future of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care system. Renewal of the Canada Housing Benefit and investments specifically for new supportive and transitional housing are welcomed. But housing supply does not provide people with what they need to maintain a home, afford food or transportation or other necessities. Similarly, access to $10-a-day childcare reduces one major expense for those who were paying high fees but does not ensure that parents have enough income or opportunity to support their children outside of care.
Income support is required to fill this gap and is a critical component of a poverty reduction plan. But there are major issues with the income security programs, which are not organized as a coherent system. Campaign 2000’s last two report cards have found that the Canada Child Benefit is losing its effectiveness and is no longer adequate to further reduce child poverty. 892,000 children live in poverty according to the official poverty line. We have proposed an End Child Poverty Supplement of up to $8,500 for the first child in families with very low incomes and scaled reductions for each additional child, modelled to cut child poverty in half immediately.
Budget 2026 does not introduce that supplement. Instead, for the same cost, it introduces the Productivity Mega Deduction, which lowers the marginal effective tax rate on new business investments. This choice illustrates the government’s willingness to make large investments into corporate competitiveness while leaving the CCB without the enhancements needed to reduce child and family poverty.
Income supports for other groups are also inadequate: 1.5 million people with disabilities live in poverty, 1.1 million seniors and 3 million working aged adults live in poverty. Income supports for people with disabilities do not take into consideration the additional costs of living with a disability, while the federal government’s own recommendation to double the Child Disability Benefit was not included. Rather, the federal government is constraining itself by classifying income support as program expenditures, which are required to be reduced, rather than investments into health, well-being and building strong communities.
In this context, the budget makes modest enhancements to three income support programs. These include a one-time 50% increase for the 2026-27 benefit year of the Groceries and Essentials Benefit, decreasing the earned income eligibility threshold for the Canada Workers’ Benefit and increasing the maximum benefit, and making the Caregivers’ Tax Credit refundable which ensures the lowest income earners benefit.
The Budget estimates the poverty reduction effects separately for each program. Assuming the numbers they present do not double or triple count the number of people lifted out by these programs, only 375,000 people will be moved out of poverty by these measures. This accounts for 8.4% of the 4,477,500 people who live in poverty in Canada. Some people will likely fall back into poverty when the increase in the Groceries and Essentials Benefit is withdrawn
The affordability measures in this budget will provide some relief, but they are modest relative to the scale of poverty. They do not amount to a credible plan for meeting Canada’s legislated poverty reduction targets. In order for children, families and people living in poverty to truly become masters of their own destiny, more sustained and robust investment in income security and public services are required.