Spring Economic Update Falls Short on Carney Government’s Promise to Protect and Fight for Women’s Equity  

Budget 2026 must go further by investing in women’s economic security, leadership and safety to build a more prosperous and inclusive Canada for all.

Anishinaabe Territory/OTTAWA, April 29, 2026 – The National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) welcomes the Spring Economic Update’s new measures to address economic abuse as well as to support workers, complementing recent actions to address the affordability crisis gripping Canadians — and hitting low-income women and single mothers hardest as they struggle to afford nutritious food, keep up with rent and pay for other essentials. However, the lack of Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) in the Spring Economic Update is disappointing. When governments fail to assess and communicate how policies and spending affect women and marginalized communities differently, public investments can entrench existing barriers rather than advance gender equity.

For instance, we note that the new Team Canada Strong investment of $6-billion in the skilled trades aims to equip 80,000 to 100,000 people with the training and employment pathways needed for well-paying jobs in the construction of housing, infrastructure, and large resource projects. But these significant investments will only advance economic equality if women are full participants in, and beneficiaries of, the opportunities they create. Because trades jobs in Canada are largely held by men, the federal government must apply a robust GBA Plus lens to the design, delivery, and evaluation of this funding, with clear targets and accountability measures to ensure women, including women from diverse and marginalized communities, can access training, apprenticeships, supports, and long-term employment in the government’s building agenda.

As Budget 2026 approaches this fall, NAWL urges the government to recognize national women’s rights organizations as essential partners whose expert knowledge must inform federal policy if Canada is to make meaningful progress toward substantive gender equality and building a stronger, more independent, and resilient Canada for all.

NAWL is also calling on the new majority government to lead with the ambition and determination this moment demands: ending the epidemic of gender-based violence and standing firm against the regressive movements — in Canada and around the world — working to erode women’s rights.

NAWL urges commitments to these policy measures in Budget 2026:

• Amend the Employment Insurance Act to remove discrimination against new mothers and ensure that people who lose their job while on parental leave, or soon after returning to work, remain eligible for regular benefits. Ending this discrimination against new mothers should not wait for broader reforms to the EI system.

• Adopt Bill C-223 (An Act to Amend the Divorce Act) to end the use of the litigation tactic of “parental alienation” accusations in family court to protect children who are victims of family violence and are disbelieved, re-victimized, and even ordered to attend “reunification therapy” to enforce time with an abusive parent.

• Commit to lift disabled people out of poverty by strengthening the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) through raising income thresholds and restructuring eligibility to be based on individual, rather than family, income. Additionally, NAWL welcomes the streamlining of Disability Tax Credit applications but asks that further reform take place, including making it a refundable tax credit.

• Ensure new measures to address intimate partner gun violence, which NAWL’s feminist law reform expertise secured in former Bill C-21 (amending the Firearms Act) in 2023, are operationalized via strong regulations, with no further delays.

NAWL also urges that commitments to these investments be included in Budget 2026:

• Reverse the looming cut to Women and Gender Equality Canada’s annual budget, set to shrink by nearly 50 per cent in 2027-28 relative to 2025-26. This is largely the result of letting Budget 2022’s $539.3 million five-year investment in the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence with provinces and territories simply expire. Renewing and strengthening this funding is essential to sustaining federal leadership on ending gender-based violence.

• Commit $10 million in total per year for five years, starting in 2027-28, in operational funding for national women’s rights organizations whose primary mandate is to drive systemic change — protecting women’s rights, ending the epidemic of gender-based violence, and advancing women’s economic security and prosperity.

This investment would bring leading national women’s rights organizations in line with the operational funding the federal government routinely provides to other non-profits, including national sport organizations such as Equestrian Canada, Table Tennis Canada, and Taekwondo Canada. It would also correct a fundamental flaw in WAGE’s current project-based model, which fails to recognize that lasting progress on issues as entrenched as gender-based violence and women’s economic inequality cannot be achieved through short-term project-based funding. It requires the sustained, long-term work of organizations like NAWL.