A Message from Shawn Campbell, President of the Confederation of Canadian Unions
As President of the Confederation of Canadian Unions, I write with deep concern about the direction taken by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal budget. On its face, Budget 2025, billed as “Canada Strong,” claims to invest decisively in infrastructure, housing, and “nation-building.”
Yet for working people, families, and future generations, this budget falls painfully short of what Canada truly needs. Too much of its ambition is directed at corporate tax breaks, private investment incentives, defence, and market-driven growth — and not nearly enough goes to the public services and supports that underpin a healthy, equitable society.
The Mismatch Between Rhetoric and Reality
The government says it wants to “build Canada strong” by investing some $51 billion over 10 years — with dedicated funding for hospitals, colleges, and community infrastructure. The announcement even includes a modest $5 billion over three years for a “Health Infrastructure Fund” to upgrade hospitals and emergency care.
But let’s be clear: this is not the same as meaningful, ongoing investment in universal, high-quality public services. A one-time infrastructure allocation cannot fix decades of chronic under-funding, staff shortages, and eroding working conditions in our health care and education systems. Meanwhile, the budget simultaneously shrinks the civil service — cutting up to 40,000 public-sector jobs — all in the name of “efficiencies”.
This tells us plainly: the government’s priority is not to strengthen public services for the people who rely on them — but to deliver austerity and shift resources toward private profit. That’s not nation-building. That’s a giveaway to Big Business at the expense of working families.
Health Care: Band-Aids Instead of a Cure
Let’s talk about what workers and their families are really facing. Hospitals across Canada are deeply strained. Emergency rooms are overcrowded, wait times keep rising, mental-health services remain underfunded, and many communities still lack timely access to primary care.
Carney’s promise of $5 billion for health-facility upgrades cannot begin to address these systemic problems. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed to hire tens of thousands more nurses, doctors, and support staff, expand mental health and home care, and rebuild community clinics. There is no new dedicated funding for pharmacare, long-term care, or mental health — all of which remain under-funded or full of cracks under this budget.
By betting on capital projects over people, this budget ignores the real, human needs at the core of a functioning health-care system.
Education and Skills Training: Not Enough, Not Durable
Budget 2025 claims it will modernize colleges and universities and support skilled trades training. But the devil is in the details — and the details are thin. Unlike previous eras, when governments made multi-decade commitments to expand public education and apprenticeships, this budget makes only one-off commitments — and then turns to corporate incentives rather than direct public investment.
What the labour movement knows well is that training shouldn’t be controlled solely by corporate demand or profit motives. Apprenticeship opportunities must be guaranteed, trades workers must be protected, and education must remain affordable and publicly funded. This budget’s focus on creating conditions for private investment — with tax breaks, business incentives, and reliance on private-sector “demand” — leaves too much to the vagaries of corporate interests.
If we are serious about rebuilding a skilled workforce capable of meeting Canada’s infrastructure and manufacturing needs, we need long-term, stable public funding for colleges, trades schools, and adult reskilling. Budget 2025 doesn’t deliver that.
Workers’ Rights Under Threat
Perhaps most troubling of all: this budget appears to side repeatedly with corporate interests over workers’ rights. The government is cutting tens of thousands of public-sector jobs, claiming the public service is being “rightsized.” Meanwhile, the business community are provided even more tax breaks, expedited investment rules, and other advantages through measures like the so-called “Productivity Super-Deduction.”
Where is the equivalent protection and support for workers — for their health, for their job security, for their rights to organize and negotiate? Instead, this budget signals that workers must adapt: accept fewer public-sector jobs, rely on private employers, and compete in a precarious labour market defined by tax-driven incentives rather than stable, unionized employers.
This undermines decades of progress in workers’ rights and collective bargaining. It threatens to weaken unions at precisely the moment when we need them most — to protect good jobs, resist wage suppression, and defend working conditions in a rapidly changing economy.
Canada Needs a Pro-Worker Alternative
Canada needs strong communities, modern infrastructure, and investments in housing, transit, and climate resilience. But those investments must go hand in hand with, not instead of, robust public services, workers’ protections, and long-term social investments.
If our government is serious about building Canada for working people — not just building Canada for corporations and investors — it must:
• Commit to sustained, multi-year funding to public health care, including hiring more frontline workers, expanding mental health and home care, and ensuring equitable access in all regions.
• Guarantee long-term support for public education, trades training, and apprenticeships — not just one-time capital spending — to develop a long-term, skilled workforce prepared to build the economy of the future.
• Protect and strengthen workers’ rights by avoiding public-service cuts, ensuring stable employment, and supporting union organizing and collective bargaining across sectors.
• Invest in programs that support everyday Canadians — affordable childcare, pharmacare, expanded public transit, and measures to reduce inequality — instead of relying mainly on incentives for business.
Budget 2025 may have a slick marketing name. It may promise “growth,” “investment,” and “nation-building.” But under the surface, it represents a rejection of the kind of Canada working people deserve — a Canada where everyone has access to quality health care, affordable education, stable jobs, and dignity at work.
Prime Minister Carney’s government had an opportunity to deliver a progressive vision for Canada’s future. Instead, it has chosen incrementalism over ambition, optics over justice, and austerity over equity.
We at the Confederation of Canadian Unions stand ready to fight for a different future — one that actually puts workers first. Because real strength is not measured in corporate tax rates and stock market gains. It is measured in healthy families, living wages, fair workplaces, and communities that thrive together.
Workers deserve better. Canada deserves better. And the CCU will keep fighting until we get it.
