Affordable housing and homelessness
Housing affordability was a top issue during the 2025 federal election and there is strong support for Canada to commit to eliminating homelessness as an urgent human rights priority. Governments must address these structural problems that have been building for decades instead of scapegoating migrants, refugees, and international students. The AFB will prioritize the expansion of non-market housing, tripling the Liberal government’s proposed investment of $6 billion to $18 billion tobuild one million new non-market and co-op housing units over the next decade, with 500,000 of these units set aside as deeply affordable, non-market units for low-income households with rents set at less than 30 per cent of household income. The AFB will partner with provincial and municipal governments to ensure that rents are permanently set at no more than 30 per cent of household income (25 per cent in Quebec) or aligned with social assistance housing allowances. The AFB will eliminate preferential tax treatment for REITs and other financialized landlords, ensuring they are taxed as operating businesses, not as passive investments.
Agriculture
Since the 1989 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, our agriculture has become more integrated with that of the United States. Disentangling our agricultural economies is urgent. The AFB will create a Cultivating Food Sovereignty suite of programs to increase Canada’s capacity to produce, process, store, and distribute food for domestic consumption. These programs will aim to achieve the following: ensure a reliable supply of nutritious, high-quality food; safeguard farmers’ incomes; mitigate GHG emissions and support adaptation to climate change impacts; safeguard biodiversity and water quality conservation; promote social inclusion and diversity of farmers and food sector workers; promote successful establishment of young and new farmers; and rebuild rural community vibrancy and rural quality of life. The AFB will also partner with provincial and municipal governments to establish a national local food purchasing procurement framework for schools (starting with the federal school lunch program), hospitals, prisons, and other facilities. It will purchase food from family farmers and farmer co-operatives to increase Canada’s food production capacity, strengthen family farming, generate employment income, develop the local economy, and promote access to food, helping to reduce food and nutritional insecurity.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The world is in the throes of an artificial intelligence (AI) hype cycle. Tech companies are attracting billions of dollars in AI investment, AI tools are proliferating in consumer and business applications, and governments are rushing to embrace AI. To mitigate the potential harms of AI while realizing its benefits, Canada requires a comprehensive and proactive policy approach that puts the public interest first. The AFB will dedicate $20 million for an expedited Royal Commission on Artificial Intelligence. It will produce a guiding vision for AI development in Canada—one that is prepared to compromise on aspirations of productivity if they do not align with Canadians’ values and priorities. The AFB will expedite the development of a new, modernized Artificial Intelligence and Data Act that gives the federal government the necessary power to regulate the proliferation of AI tools. Among other elements, the act will ensure that any AI tool offered to the public in Canada meets minimum standards of safety, reliability and transparency, including validation by independent third parties. It will also include mechanisms to pause or roll back new AI tools where they prove to be harmful after initial approval and deployment.
Arts and culture
The AFB brings a renewed commitment to supporting our arts, artists and culture, so we can tell our stories and hear our voices. The AFB will improve CBC/Radio Canada funding so that it matches the per capita investment that other public broadcasters receive. CBC presently only receives $32 per person in federal funding. The average for all public broadcasters (based on a 19-country comparison) is $79 a person in government support. The AFB will increase the federal refundable tax credit for artistic expressions to 35 per cent. The AFB will provide targeted measures to support professional artists. The AFB will amend the Income Tax Act to provide that professional artistic income up to $10,000 will be eligible for a refundable tax credit of 15 per cent. The AFB will ensure tax fairness for professional artists by allowing artists to back-average their income over four years. Visual artists may prepare works for many years before these are exhibited and sold. A writer may spend many years on a script before it is made into a movie and generates income. But the income these artists receive will be taxed in the year it is received.
Child care
The AFB will take the following actions to increase equitable access to $10-a-day child care and improve the quality of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program over the next five years. Additionally, the AFB will ensure adequate financial support for the implementation of the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care framework agreement co-developed by Indigenous partners and the Government of Canada. The AFB will support the creation of sufficient net new full-time spaces operated by not-for-profit community child care providers, public sector entities, or Indigenous governments and organizations, with the goal of ensuring that there is sufficient licensed child care by March 31, 2031, in each province and territory for at least 65 per cent of children under the age of six. The AFB will require that each provincial and territorial government expand the size of the child care workforce, raise recruitment and retention rates, and increase the proportion of staff who have early childhood education post-secondary diplomas and degrees. The AFB will convene and support the development of a comprehensive strategy, by March 31, 2027, to build a public school-age child care system for children until age 12.
Defence
Canada’s defence spending has now risen to two per cent of GDP—a level not seen since the end of the Second World War—while Canada faces evolving security challenges that extend beyond conventional threats, increasingly shaped by the accelerating impacts of technological and climate change. The AFB will move Canada’s defence budget allocation away from the arbitrary five per cent of GDP target proposed by NATO. The AFB willcancel Canada’s planned acquisition of the remaining 72 of 88 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The AFB will provide $1.095 billion toward the acquisition of 16 DHC-515 Firefighter aircraft to augment climate response efforts, to be acquired by the Royal Canadian Air Force as the first federally owned-and-operated waterbombers. The AFB will provide $2.5-$3 billion toward dual-use domain awareness capabilities that serve both security and climate/environmental needs. The AFB will allocate $1 billion over five years to scale up Canada’s peace operations, with targeted support for personnel, training, and deployment readiness.The AFB will provide $80 million toward the recruitment of an additional 6,000 Primary Reserve personnel to act as climate-event first responders. The AFB will refuse any spending on the “Golden Dome.”
Employment Insurance (EI)
The AFB will introduce a new program of EI emergency response measures, integrating lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic about what makes EI more responsive and relevant to workers. We need an automatic, predictable response in the event of floods, hurricanes, wildfires, pandemics and more. Eligibility requirements will be relaxed, and affected workers will be automatically credited with additional hours and given a longer reach-back period for accumulating hours. The AFB will establish a common, pan-Canadian qualifying rule for both regular and special EI benefits—a measure used during the pandemic. This acknowledges that regional unemployment rates should have no bearing on workers’ access to EI. A minimum claim will require a fixed 360 hours (or 12 weeks when to the claimant’s advantage). This is the equivalent of 12 weeks of 30 hours, approximating the average schedule for payroll employees. The AFB will increase the current EI benefit rate to 66.6 per cent and place a floor on benefits of $500 a week.
Environment and climate change
Decarbonizing the Canadian economy by regulating fossil fuels and spending enough on climate action is not merely an environmental or moral imperative. In 2024, extreme weather caused a record-breaking $8.5 billion in insurable losses in Canada. Indirect costs to human health, productivity and so on likely totalled closer to $20 billion. After another devastating wildfire season, 2025 is no different. These costs are the tip of the iceberg. Canada’s economic growth will be cut by a third or even in half by the end of the century if climate change continues to go unchecked—economic damages on a scale that vastly exceeds the cost of achieving net-zero emissions. To cap emissions from Canada’s most polluting industry, the AFB will pass two major outstanding federal climate commitments: the Oil and Gas Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cap and the Climate-Aligned Finance Act. The AFB willimpose climate and biodiversity conditions, also known as “green strings,” on all federal spending, including infrastructure investment and public procurement. The AFB willimpose a moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure, including oil sands expansions, offshore oil wells, liquified natural gas facilities, oil and gas pipelines and gas power plants.
First Nations
Canada can no longer afford to neglect First Nations’ funding priorities or fail to address exclusionary laws, policies, and regulations that create and sustain socio-economic gaps between First Nations and the rest of Canada. The AFB will invest $90 million over three years to support collaboration between the Government of Canada and First Nations, to establish an evidence-based assessment of specific claims research funding needs. The AFB will invest nearly $4 billion over three years to enhance Band Support Funding to adequately support First Nations governments to perform the basic functions of modern governance. The AFB willcreate a framework forinvesting $349.2 billion over seven years to close the infrastructure gap for First Nations and deliver on the Government of Canada’s nation-building aspirations for First Nations and all Canadians. The AFB willsupport the establishment, within this fiscal year, of a self-governed First Nations Infrastructure Bank to meet the unique investment, capacity building, and customer service needs of First Nations in closing the infrastructure gap. This will be capitalized by re-profiling the $10 billion Indigenous Loan Guarantees Program. The AFB will invest $2.34 billion over three years to fully address chronic homelessness affecting First Nations citizens.
Food security
In 2024, nearly 10 million people—including 2.5 million children—in the 10 Canadian provinces experienced household food insecurity, the highest rate ever recorded. The AFB will set two national targets: cut household food insecurity by 50 per cent and eliminate severe household food insecurity by 2030, using 2021 as the baseline. Meeting these targets would mean lifting three million people out of household food insecurity. The AFB will ensure targeted affordable housing and rental support, including expanding the Canada Housing Benefit, for households facing housing insecurity—especially for Indigenous Peoples, Black and racialized people, people considered to be working poor, and precarious renters. The AFB will strengthen the Competition Bureau to block mergers, collect pricing data, and dismantle monopolies. It will invest $100 million over three years in local, non-profit, and co-operative food retailers and public markets through grants, loans, and training, and establish publicly owned grocery stores in urban food deserts, prioritizing local procurement.
Gender equality
Recognizing that an economy is built not just on roads, ports and hydro dams, but also on paid and unpaid care for each other and our planet, AFB 2026 makes the investments necessary to strengthen Canada’s essential physical and social infrastructure. Advancing substantive gender equality is crucial to this goal. The AFB will implement a new Employment Equity Act, committing $20 million over the next three years (including the creation of two new equity groups: Black people and 2SLGBTQI+ people). The AFB will commit $30 million over three years to the operation of the Sectoral Table on the Care Economy, pursuant to Canada’s obligations as a member of the Global Alliance for Care. The AFB will invest $360 million over three years to stabilize the violence against women shelter and transition-house sector and address fundamental funding gaps in the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, including the oversight of sexual assault centres and legal aid services. The AFB will establish a fund of $7 million per year to provide core support for national gender equality organizations working on advocacy, research, education, policy analysis, and legal reform to advance the rights of women and gender-diverse people.
Health care
Canada’s health care system is in crisis—the AFB resolves to fix it. The AFB will make a commitment to strengthening patient care, reversing privatization, and solving the health care staffing crisis. The AFB will ensure that bilateral health agreements also tie federal funding to caps on the usage of agency nurses and other health care professionals, and require provinces/territories to boost permanent positions within the public system. The AFB will make the Canadian Dental Care Plan consistent with the principles of the Canada Health Act by removing what is known as “means testing” to determine eligibility. The AFB will continue to negotiate pharmacare agreements with the nine remaining provinces and territories, and it will expand the list of medicines covered by agreements with provinces. The AFB will, in conjunction with provincial and territorial governments, increase the funding for mental health services to at least 12 per cent of the health services budget.
Health equity
Health equity means that everyone has fair access to, and is enabled and empowered to act on, opportunities to reach their full health potential. Health is not just about physical sickness or its absence, it is a holistic concept that includes physical, mental, and social well-being. The AFB will create a Well-Being Economy Mission Collaborative that includes the new cabinet committee on Quality of Life and Well-Being. The stated mandate of the new cabinet committee will change to “provide political leadership for engagement, visibility, implementation, and accountability towards a well-being economy, including its embodiment in bold, coherent, cross-government, public-driven, and equity-centred public policy.” This mandate will include applying policy mechanisms such as ownership, regulation, and conditional transfer payments across sectors that serve public interests and that are consistent with social and health equity; and engaging in regular, broad, and visible communication with the public: $2 million a year for three years. The AFB will add the minister of finance to the new cabinet committee’s membership, signalling that political leadership towards a vision that centres the well-being of all people and the planet.
Immigration
Over the past year, the federal government has rolled out a series of policy changes that tighten and securitize every major immigration stream—decisions which deepen long-standing inequities in the system. Racialized migrants and refugees, women, 2SLGBTQI+ people and disabled persons, many of whom rely on community sponsorships, open work permits or low-wage streams, now face longer family separations, greater precarity and heightened surveillance. The AFB will rescind the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA). The agreement undermines equitable refugee protection; the U.S. is not a safe country for all asylum seekers. The AFB will withdraw Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act. The AFB will end immigration detention. The AFB will guarantee permanent-status-on-arrival and open work permits for all workers. The AFB will eliminate closed/employer-specific permits for all foreign worker programs, including temporary foreign workers, to ensure labour mobility and full legal protection. The AFB will establish binding national employment standards and housing regulations for migrant agricultural and low-wage workers. The AFB will guarantee universal, provincial/territorial health coverage and treatment to all migrants living in Canada regardless of immigration status, including for people who are undocumented. The AFB will adopt a National Plan for Asylum with Dignity.
Incarceration
The Canadian federal prison system needs significant change. Though it is legislatively mandated to serve public safety by being reintegrative, it is a costly, ineffective system which keeps many in cycles of incarceration, in prison for years and decades. The AFB offers a roadmap to meaningfully and responsibly reduce incarceration by 30 per cent by 2035. The AFB will amend the Criminal Records Act and implement a free and automatic spent record process, turning to the model outlined in Bill S-207 and supported by the Fresh Start Coalition. This will ensure that Canadians who have completed their sentences and who are trying to live good lives are not permanently excluded from good jobs and safe housing by having criminal records. This amendment will save Canadians $25 million over the next five years and can be allocated to implement the Federal Framework to Reduce Recidivism. The AFB will continually identify and move people into Indigenous justice systems, and community-based alternatives. The AFB will invest $100 million a year to implement the solutions identified across the Federal Framework to Reduce Recidivism, Canada’s Black Justice Strategy, Canada’s Indigenous Justice Strategy, and the Action Plan on Criminal Justice and Mental Health for Canada.
Industrial strategy and sector development
Governments at all levels, together with civil society stakeholders, must recalibrate industrial sector development to support working people, create good union jobs, and confront an increasingly volatile global economy, rapid technological change and climate crisis. Achieving this demands a bold and proactive industrial strategy that deploys public investment and oversight and fosters industry-wide collaboration to advance sustainability goals—and forge a more resilient and equitable economy. The AFB will recapitalize the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) to $10 billion over five years, with half of the allocated funding directed toward large critical upstream and midstream projects tied to national interest objectives, economic diversification and tariff mitigation efforts. The AFB will commit $1 billion over 10 years to create a supplementary Transition Benefit for workers displaced by climate policies or tariff mitigation and trade diversification measures. The AFB will commit $5 billion over five years to create an Inclusive Workforce Development program to promote opportunities for underrepresented groups in growth industries. The AFB will ensure labour and economic development conditions on nation-building projects, including, prevailing wage, union neutrality covenants, community benefit agreements. The AFB will institute an ambitious ‘made-in-Canada’ procurement directive.
Infrastructure, cities and transit
In response to Donald Trump’s trade war, developing Canada’s national infrastructure is a hot topic. While the prospect of major new infrastructure investment would seem a sensible response, the danger is if governments squander tens of billions of public dollars on pipelines and fossil fuel infrastructure like liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals or misguided public-private partnerships that seek to generate private profits at public expense. The AFB gets back to basics and invests similar dollar amounts into the real infrastructure upon which our prosperity depends. Water and sewer upgrades are boring, but they directly improve people’s quality of life and accommodate growth and more dense housing. Transit investments get people and goods moving. We also envision a different suite of national projects to better connect Canada, namely an east-west clean electricity grid, and new high-speed rail capacity. The AFB willstrike revenue-sharing agreements with municipalities, giving them access to the top two income tax brackets (affecting those earning $172,714 and up). This would allow municipalities to raise additional revenues by taxing high earners. The AFB will create a funded mandate for VIA Rail to expand rail service across the country and establish dedicated project offices for high-speed rail connections in priority corridors.
International cooperation
The world is facing growing instability driven by conflict, climate change, shrinking civic space, and intensifying geopolitical tensions. Humanitarian needs are escalating, inequality is deepening, and the global development cooperation system is under acute strain, with severe funding cuts and outdated models limiting effective response. The AFB willwork to return Office Development Assistance (ODA) to its core goal of poverty eradication in the Global South. This includes minimizing funds spent domestically and removing climate finance from the ODA budget. The AFB will ensure that international assistance to Ukraine is supplementary to stable or growing assistance for the rest of the world. To support this, it will launch an Eastern Europe Assistance Tracker to monitor foreign aid related to the war and crisis in Ukraine.The AFB will strengthen Canada’s role in upholding international humanitarian law by making the protection of civilians and aid workers a foreign policy priority. The AFB will champion reforms to global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to make them more responsive to the needs of low- and middle-income countries. Supporting mechanisms for sustainable financing, including climate finance, will be key to building long-term global resilience.
International trade
This year’s Alternative Federal Budget takes the Trump threat seriously by moving away from the failures of free trade and deep integration with the United States. It walks away from an international order that serves the interests of powerful corporations and their financiers and invests in a new international economic order that prioritizes people over profits and cooperation over competition. The AFB will terminate or suspend the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement and ban all weapons sales to Israel—direct and indirect—to pressure the Netanyahu government to end its genocidal campaign in Gaza and to heed its international legal and humanitarian obligations towards Palestinians. The AFB will direct Global Affairs Canada to remove investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) from Canadian trade and investment deals. The AFB will allocate $2 million to convene a broad civil society advisory group to help the Canadian government develop priorities for the 2026 mandatory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). The AFB will allocate $50 million over two years to expand the number of professions covered by the Interprovincial Standards Red Seal Program, which allows certified workers to ply their trade in any part of Canada.
Post-secondary education
The federal government’s mandate to bolster Canadian sovereignty through ‘nation building’ must include supporting all Canadians: our people, their skills and talents, are our greatest resource. Investments in post-secondary education, science research, and innovation are essential to shore up the foundation of Canada and to address longstanding public underfunding. The AFB willraise the maximum Canada Student Grant amount to $8,000 and lower the income thresholds for accessing grants. It is currently $4,200 and anticipated to fall to $3,000 in 2026—well below the average undergraduate tuition of $7,000 a year. The AFB will provide $10 billion dollars to the provinces distributed through accountability agreements with the provinces on shared priorities. That amount would have an escalator of five per cent a year. Shared priorities must include reducing—with the aim of eventually eliminating—tuition, implementing an academic workforce strategy, addressing program closures, as well as making a commitment to academic freedom, ensuring that the PSE sector is free of political interference in research and teaching. The AFB will double funding in the Post-Secondary Student Support Program and the University and College Entrance Preparation Program to help close the gap on educational attainment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.
Poverty and income security
Poverty, income and wealth inequality exist in Canadian society because it is a choice governments have made. The AFB will accelerate ambitions for the poverty reduction strategy (PRS). There are only two targets in the federal PRS: to reduce poverty by 20 per cent by 2020 and by 50 per cent by 2030 (measured from 2015). Both targets were achieved well ahead of their timelines. The AFB will improve the PRS by implementing accelerated targets to reduce poverty by 50 per cent by 2028, according to multiple available measures: the MBM for the provinces, MBM-N for the territories and the CFLIM-AT. It will eliminate poverty by 2031. The AFB will target a reduction in deep poverty by one third by 2028. The AFB will create a new Canada Liveable Income (CLI) benefit for working-age adults who do not have children and who do not have disabilities. The AFB will immediately increase the Canada Disability Benefit amount to $9,000 in the first year. The AFB will introduce a new End Child Poverty supplement to the CCB targeted to children in deep poverty and expand eligibility to all children residing in Canada. The AFB will permanently increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement by 10%
Public service
The Liberal government’s priority to cut spending by capping the size of the public service was announced at the same time as promises to deliver major nation-building projects in record time. Deep cuts to the levels promised would require across-the-board job losses and major service reductions, not just public service caps, leaving many workers wondering how so much can be accomplished with fewer people to get the work done. The government cannot meet its nation-building goals without a strong public service. The AFB will stop the job cuts being implemented as part of the “refocusing government spending” plan, so that people in Canada can access the critical services they rely on without delays. It will bring contracted services back in-house to ensure better oversight, improve service delivery, and achieve cost efficiencies in the federal government. The AFB willabandon plans for radical 15 per cent cuts to operational expenditures and departmental transfers that would substantially reduce service levels and seriously hamper the federal government’s ability to tackle major new projects in housing construction and reinvigorating the Canadian economy in the face of U.S. threats.
Racial equity
Indigenous, Black, and other racialized peoples continue to face historic and ongoing systemic racism in virtually every aspect of life in Canada. The AFB will require every budget measure to publish its Racial Equity Impact Assessment findings. The AFB will enact an Anti-Racism Act, establishing an independent, well-resourced secretariat reporting directly to parliament. The AFB will modernize the Employment Equity Act by 2026, adopting all Blackett Task Force recommendations and expanding designated groups. The AFB will fully fund and implement Canada’s Black Justice Strategy, including sustainable operational funding for Black community organizations. The AFB will make the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative permanent and expand the Black Entrepreneurship Program’s capital envelope. The AFB will amend the Canada Labour Code to explicitly recognize racism as a form of workplace violence and require employer reporting. The AFB will attach Community Benefits Agreements with racial-equity hiring and procurement clauses to all federal investments over $10 million. The AFB will launch a public education campaign on anti-Muslim, anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, co-designed with affected communities. The AFB will re-introduce Bill C-63 to enact the Online Harms Act Bill, addressing online hate while protecting freedom of expression.
Seniors’ and long-term care
The AFB is putting forward a dedicated, funded, and accountable vision for transforming seniors’ care that supports quality of care, quality of work, and quality of life. Funding will be based on enforceable standards, removing profit from care, affordability for seniors, and providing appropriate compensation and conditions for those who do care work. The AFB will transform housing and living options for seniors. This will be done through funding envelopes for publicly owned, publicly delivered, affordable housing options that integrate care services within them and provide smooth transitions as care needs change. The AFB willtransform how seniors’ care is delivered by funding the development of standards for home care, social housing for seniors, assisted living, and retirement homes. The AFB will invest directly in expanding home care and facility-based long-term care to ensure that care can be provided to everyone who needs it, where it is needed most. It will also invest in funding options for seniors’ housing that can provide intermediate care, such as assisted living, retirement homes, and co-operatives. Through the new national housing plan, the AFB will provide funding to build, own, and operate high-quality, public, non-profit seniors’ care facilities. The AFB will also improve the Canada Caregiver Credit and make it refundable.
Taxation
The AFB will create a new personal income tax bracket on income above $1 million. During the mid-20th century, Canada had top marginal tax rates over 80 per cent for extremely high income. The purpose of such rates is not just to raise revenue, it is to discourage incomes from being so high. The AFB will tax extreme wealth. A progressive wealth tax on net worth over $10 million would redistribute wealth and power, while raising over $39 billion in the first year. The AFB will prevent corporate profiteering during crises by implementing a windfall profits tax, triggerable during social and economic crises, on taxable profits above 120 per cent of pre-crisis profit levels. The AFB proposes a super-profits tax of five per cent on corporations with taxable income over $100 million on a consolidated basis. The use of tax havens would be prohibited, and a minimum tax would be placed on book profits. The AFB would also increase the general federal corporate income tax rate from 15 per cent to 20 per cent, partially offsetting the corporate income tax cuts that took place between 2007 and 2012. The AFB would invest in more CRA auditing and enforcement of wealth individuals and corporations yielding a four to one return.
Veterans
Decades of institutional neglect have left today’s veterans with a patchwork of benefits and solutions that often fail to meet their needs despite many years of calling for reform. The AFB will launch an independent inquiry to ensure that all veterans, loved ones, caregivers and surviving family members receive the benefits and support they need, when and where they need it. The inquiry will produce a report with tangible and measurable recommendations. The AFB will register all unregistered veterans. To date, VAC has taken a limited, reactive approach to service delivery that focuses on those who actively seek out their services. The AFB will ensure that caregivers and family members, including spouses, former spouses, survivors, and dependent children, have access, independent of the veteran’s treatment plan, to mental health treatment when their mental health issues are related to conditions of military service experienced by their family member. The AFB will provide funds for occupational medicine (particularly for veterans without a family doctor), and civilian physicians accepting veterans as patients. The AFB will direct the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to develop veteran-specific streams of National Housing Strategy funds for housing projects and to provide capital through low-interest and forgivable loans.
