In the run up to Mothers Day there are lots of articles about the perfect gifts and best brunch spots to celebrate mothers. As it happens, there has also been a lot of coverage of the federal Spring Economic Update (SEU)—but no gifts for mothers there.
The key announcement was a new (so-called) sovereign wealth fund to finance physical infrastructure and $6 billion for apprenticeships in the trades. By contrast, the SEU was notably silent on investments in health and education, affordable child care, caregiving leave, and growing economic precarity—all issues of consequence to mothers and families.
On any number of metrics, Canadians are struggling, young people and low-income families in particular. A year ago, four in 10 adults reported that their household found it “difficult” or “very difficult” to meet their financial needs, more than double the level in 2021. In 2022, 38 per cent of young adults (aged 20 to 29) said that they wouldn’t be able to afford to have a child in the next three years.
Little left for food and basic needs
The soaring cost of rent, lack of affordable housing, and overstretched health and community services have left many overburdened.
The situation of single mothers is particularly precarious. Single mothers were hugely impacted by the pandemic. The economic lockdown in 2020 wiped out two decades of economic progress at a stroke. Concentrated in “flexible” occupations such as sales and service, over one-third (37.5 per cent) of single mothers with kids under 12 lost their jobs or a majority of their working hours when the economy shut down in the spring.
Without access to supports such as child care, many were forced out the labour market altogether, reducing their autonomy and entrenching their poverty—to say nothing of the individual toll on the women’s aspirations and hopes for the future.
Five years later, single mothers (25-54 years) with kids 0 to 12 years have still not recouped their employment losses (down -43,000 between 2019 and 2025), coinciding with a sizable drop in their overall numbers (-63,500).
A key part of this story is that single mothers are having a much more difficult time living on their own. There’s been little change in their after-tax incomes since 2021. And little change in the sizeable wage gap between single mothers (especially never-married mothers) and mothers in couple families.
In 2023, “unpartnered” mothers with young children earned 19 per cent less, on average, than their “partnered” peers. This was true among Canadian-born, immigrant and Indigenous mothers—a reflection of deep-seated occupational segregation. Absent meaningful community and family support, single mothers will always be forced into low paid service work, low paid precisely because these workers have no choice.
High poverty rates among single mother families is another economic indicator that has changed little over the years. It is about four times higher than in couple families, up 10 percentage points from 22.8 per cent in 2020 when pandemic-era benefit programs dramatically halved poverty in Canada.
An even higher share of single mother families (47.4 per cent) reported being food insecure in 2024 compared to 27.3 per cent of couple families with kids according to the most recent Canadian Income Survey. It’s up from 2020 particularly among Black single mothers and those that rely on government transfer programs.
Glaring holes in Canada’s economic plan
Mothers looking for relief in the April 28 Spring Economic Update were sorely disappointed. A one-time top of 50 per cent to the Goods and Services Tax Credit, announced in January, will certainly deliver relief to low-income families this summer. As a result of this change, 172,000 adults and children will be lifted out of poverty.
But temporarily suspending federal excise taxes at a cost of $2.1 billion in foregone revenues, like the cut to the lower income tax bracket last year, will deliver little relief to low income households, just $59 on average for those in the bottom quintile according to the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Likewise, new measures to boost the construction of private homes and the HST rebates on these new unaffordable homes benefit housing developers and wealthy investors, not those in acute housing need. Where were the measures to expand non-market housing for low-income households or new protections for renters, both of which would make a huge difference for single parents and other low-income households.
For single mothers, indeed all women, the failure of the Spring Economic Update to prioritize poverty reduction and economic resilience is further compounded by the government’s austerity efforts that are eroding access to critical public services.
The government’s silence on the renewal of funding for the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program as well as the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence and the national pharmacare program is profoundly troubling. It’s hard not to question the government’s commitment to gender equality with these programs on the chopping block, set to quietly expire in the next one to two years.
Care work doesn’t make the cut in today’s Ottawa
Research on family policy conclusively shows that where there is affordable, accessible, high quality care services, mothers, children and families all benefit—especially those such as single mothers who confront the largest barriers.
Federal investments in child care, for instance, have greatly reduced child care fees for the lucky parents who have access to “federal” spots. The creation of new spaces, however, has fallen woefully short of targets, unable to respond to heightened demand. Perversely, low income parents now have less access to low cost child care than before the federal program, pushed out by higher income families because of faulty implementation.
Shortages of qualified staff due to low wages, minimal benefits, and poor working conditions are compounding the problem. New capital and operational funding is urgently needed for the expansion of nonprofit and public spaces, including in Indigenous communities, as well as resources for improving staff recruitment and retention.
Instead, the Spring Economic Update noted that the federal $625-million infrastructure fund launched in 2023 to support creating non-profit, licensed child-care spaces will end this year.
It appears among policy-makers in Ottawa that you need to wear a hardhat to qualify as a nation builder. Child care workers and the millions of women who work in Canada’s care economy don’t make the cut.
Investments in the care economy are precisely the type of “dual purpose” investments we need, not only supporting and sustaining communities across the country but generating tremendous economic benefit for all. This Mother’s Day, let’s keep fighting for progressive family policies and income security programs that hold up all families. These are the gifts that keep on giving.
