Federal Budget 2025: What We Asked for and What We Got

Back in August, Food First NL submitted 16 recommendations to the federal government during their Pre-Budget Consultations. We joined food security leaders across the country to call for:

  • increased incomes

  • targets to reduce food insecurity

  • advancements in Indigenous-led food sovereignty initiatives, and

  • a permanent school food program.

Of those sixteen recommendations, Budget 2025 delivers only one.

After years of collaboration and advocacy, the National School Food Program’s permanency is a major win. It also indicates that advocacy movements can work, and we need to keep going. The federal government has a clear responsibility to advance the right to food in Canada. We will continue working with our partners to remind our elected officials about that responsibility. Together, we can create a province where everyone can eat with joy and dignity. 

Our Recommendations Vs. Budget 2025

1. Sustain federal investment and make the National School Food Program permanent

We asked the federal government to:

  • Fulfill your committed investment of $1 billion over 5 years 

    • Budget 2025: ✅

  • Allocate $20 million per year for the Buy Canadian in School Foods Program

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Provide $500,000 per year to the National School Food Program Research Partnership

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Expand your funding of the National School Food Program

    • Budget 2025: ❌

Thoughts from The Coalition for Healthy School Food:

“We will continue to communicate to the government as this program rolls out that while $216.6 million per year is a very strong start, it is insufficient funding for a universal program, and we will be urging the government to grow the program so that it reaches all Canadian children and youth. We will also work to encourage renewed investment in the School Food Infrastructure Fund, the Buy Canadian promise, and funding for a National School Food Program Research Partnership as we requested in our 2025 pre-budget submission.”

2: Enhance existing income supports

We asked the federal government to:

  • Expand and strengthen the Canada Disability Benefit

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Transform the GST/HST credit into a Groceries and Essentials Benefit

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Transform the Canada Workers Benefit into an enhanced Canada Working-Age Supplement

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Enhance Employment Insurance to support all workers.

    • Budget 2025: ❌

Reflections from some of our partners: 

Food Banks Canada:

“To address the rising rates of food insecurity among working individuals — currently the fastest-growing group of food bank users — the government must provide direct support for low-income and precariously employed workers. Canada’s Employment Insurance system must be modernized to reflect today’s labour market realities…”

Disability Without Poverty:

“The federal government took a welcome step toward cutting red tape for the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) by helping to offset the costs of applying for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) for those who qualify for both programs. Unfortunately, we knew there was no rate increase coming, even though we lobbied hard for it, and we will continue to do so.”

3. Resource and engage with the movement to create a basic income in Canada

We asked the federal government to:

  • Renew and Expand Federal Commitment to the PEI Working Group

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Fund the Demonstration Project on Prince Edward Island in the 2025 Budget

    • Budget 2025: ❌

Thoughts from Basic Income Canada:

“Budget 2025 invests in defending Canadian sovereignty and protecting against growing threats. But true security requires income security. Canadians need stable footing, the same way our nation does. It would take only a fraction of the Budget’s funding on defence to ensure basic living standards for all Canadians far more effectively and efficiently than our current patchwork across the country. The savings from investing in the health and wellbeing of Canadians through a Basic Income Guarantee would be significant and would help eliminate unnecessary, wasteful spending dealing with the symptoms, not the causes, of social problems.”

4. Set targets for food insecurity reduction

We asked the federal government to:

  • Set a target of reducing food insecurity by 50% and eliminating severe food insecurity by 2030, relative to 2021 levels

    • Budget 2025: ❌

Summary from Right To Food:

“What’s missing is a coordinated, rights-based plan to ensure everyone in Canada can eat with dignity. The budget offers no national target to reduce food insecurity, no meaningful increase to income supports for low-wage workers or people with disabilities, and no dedicated investment in Indigenous food sovereignty.”

5. Support and strengthen Indigenous food sovereignty

We asked the federal government to:

  • Uphold joint custodianship of Canada

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Collect and publish timely and actionable race-based data

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Improve access to land

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Increase funding to the Local Food Infrastructure Fund (LFIF) 

    • Budget 2025: ❌

  • Co-develop evidence-based food security approaches to replace Nutrition North Canada with Inuit and Northern Indigenous leaders

    • Budget 2025: ❌

Response from Right To Food:

“No dedicated funding streams for Indigenous food sovereignty initiatives and no explicit federal commitment to food sovereignty as policy is disturbing.”

Resources

Our partners and leaders from across the country are still releasing budget analyses. Here are some of the resources helping us dig deeper: