The federal government tabled its budget on November 4, 2025. This review of Budget 2025 by Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC)— the national peace and social justice agency of Quakers in Canada —is here to provide you with key insights into the government’s planned investments and commitments, with a focus on areas that will have important implications for CFSC’s peace and social justice priorities.

You can find a PDF version of this review here.

Background:

Budget 2025 marks a series of firsts.

It is the first budget released under Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal government, and the first budget to transition to a new fall budgeting cycle. This cycle sees the federal budget being unveiled in fall, followed by a spring economic and fiscal update as the new fiscal year begins. The Department of Finance Canada has cited several benefits of this new cycle, including more time for municipalities, businesses, organizations, and Canadians to plan budgets and projects, better alignment between the budget and Main Estimates[1],  greater clarity and certainty on available funding ahead of the fiscal year for organizations providing services and programs to Canadians, and an earlier start to projects in the construction season.[2]

Budget 2025 also presents and applies the new Capital Budgeting Framework, which will distinguish and separate operational spending (e.g., the costs of running government services) from spending that promotes private or public sector capital investments (e.g., infrastructure and housing investments). These changes – the Capital Budgeting Framework and the fall budgeting cycle – are part of Canada’s new modernized approach to budgeting, which Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue, has stated is about “laying a stronger financial foundation for Canada” and “making better-timed and more transparent decisions.”[3]

To better understand the scope of Budget 2025’s implications, it is important to contextualize its development alongside several domestic and international challenges that CFSC has been following closely. These issues include the US trade war against Canada; ongoing humanitarian crises, wars, and genocides, including those occurring in Sudan, Congo, Gaza, and the Ukraine; the passage of the Building Canada Act (introduced as Bill C-5), which sets a dangerous precedent of undermining the Title and Rights, including Treaty rights of Indigenous Peoples, and their right to free, prior, and informed consent; gaps in implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, including inconsistent understandings of the standards of cooperation and consultation; and a ramping up of military and defence spending as Canada sets its sights on the NATO Defence Investment Pledge of 5% of GDP by 2035.

As the minority liberal government has insufficient seats in the House of Commons to pass the budget without opposition support (they hold 169 seats and require 172 votes to pass the budget), Budget 2025 has the potential to trigger a winter election. The final vote on the budget will take place on November 17, 2025.

Budget 2025 Overview and Highlights

The budget, titled “Canada Strong,”[4] responds to global economic uncertainty by focusing on “generational capital investments” and spending less on day-to-day government operations.

• Budget outlines $20.1 billion total net new spending for the fiscal year 2025-26 and a total of $89.7 billion in net new spending over the next five years (Table A1.3, p.231).
• $60 billion in cuts and savings over the next five years (p.15), with a deficit projected at $78.3 billion this year (p.231), a marked increase from the $42 billion the Liberals promised in their last fiscal update.
• Operational cuts include reducing the public service workforce and cutting 40,000 positions by the end of 2029 (pg. 206).
• Major capital investments include $280 billion over five years towards four priorities (p. 18): infrastructure ($115 billion), productivity and competitiveness ($110 billion), defence and security ($30 billion), and housing ($25 billion).

Peace

• Canadians will see the largest defence investment in decades – an additional $81.8 billion over five years (p.185).
• A strong emphasis on “rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting” in the Canadian Armed Forces. Measures include:
  • Spending $6.6 billion over five years on a Defence Industrial Strategy that aims to bolster Canada’s defence industry and invest in Canadian defence businesses and firms (p. 186).
  • Creation of a new Defence Investment Agency that will accelerate and streamline defence procurement (p.188).
• Canada will meet NATO’s 2% of GDP target this year; the budget promises to accelerate investments to meet NATO’s 5% Defence Investment Pledge by 2035 (p. 27).
• $3 billion has been set aside to support ongoing military operations in Latvia (Operation REASSURANCE) and the Middle East (Operation AMARNA) (p.190).

Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights:

• Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada will each have their budgets cut by 2% (pp. 299, 312). This means a total cut of almost $2.3 billion by spring 2030 ($560 million in reductions per year)[5]. Concerns are emerging around what this will mean for the essential services and programs that Indigenous communities rely upon[6].
• Budget lacks new money for Indigenous-specific programming and highlights previously announced commitments – beyond 2025-26 there is no guaranteed funding for several programs, including on-reserve education, First Nations and Inuit children’s wellness, emergency management, Jordan’s Principle, and urban programming (Table A1.18, p.274).
• No guarantees on the renewal of programs set to expire, including Urban Programming for Indigenous Peoples, which covers essential expenses for Friendship Centres in cities and is set to expire in March 2026.
• No new money for housing – $2.8 billion confirmed from a previous commitment in 2022 ($4.3 billion over seven years) for urban, rural, and northern Indigenous housing (p.159).
• New funding includes $2.3 billion over three years to strengthen access to clean water for First Nations (pp.158-159) and $10.1 million over three years for Indigenous consultations on major projects being fast-tracked through the regulatory process under the Building Canada Act (p.81), and the $1 billion Arctic Infrastructure Fund which will support infrastructure projects and Indigenous partnership opportunities in the North (p. 137).

Transformative Justice:

• Canada has a focus on strengthening its borders, increasing policing capacity, and making bail and sentencing laws stricter for repeat and violent offending. $1.7 billion over four years will be used to expand policing capacity and support the hiring of 1,000 new RCMP personnel (p.192). The $1.3 billion Border Plan will tighten border security and enable the hiring of 1,000 new Canada Border Services Agency officers (p.26).
• The budget is slashing temporary immigration and reducing targets for new temporary residents by 43%, from 673,650 to 385,000 next year (p. 196).
• New funding for the Department of Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) includes $660.5 million over five years ( 169):
  • $54.6 million over five years to support 2SLGBTQI+ communities
  • $223.4 million over five years to address and combat gender-based violence
  • $382.5 million to advance women’s equality in Canada
• While existing programs like the National School Food Program, Canada Child Benefit, and Canada Disability Benefit are maintained, the budget lacks significant new poverty reduction measures to fulfill Canada’s commitment under the Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy to reduce poverty by 50% by 2030 (relative to 2015 levels).

Key Insights and Analysis

Introduction

In advance of the federal budget’s release, CFSC prepared a pre-budget submission that contained our key recommendations and priorities for Budget 2025. CFSC highlighted the opportunity presented by the budget for Canada to create a roadmap to domestic wellbeing and global peace, one that makes lasting changes that go beyond the status quo to protect, serve, and benefit all communities and peoples in Canada.

CFSC recognizes that economic prosperity and cost-effective solutions are rooted in and strengthened by policies and frameworks that promote peace, justice, and Indigenous and human rights.  Supporting the restoration of Indigenous justice systems and legal traditions, prioritizing diversion over incarceration, focusing on poverty reduction, removing barriers to education and health, and ending forms of violence that disproportionately impact women, are all pathways to fiscal responsibility, healthier, resilient communities, and smarter governance.

Unfortunately, in many instances, Budget 2025 does not pursue these pathways with the sustained funding and targeted measures we would have hoped for. As outlined in the remarks by the Minister of Finance and National Revenue, Budget 2025 is about “turning fiscal strength into national purpose.”[7] For Canada, this fiscal strength apparently lies not in addressing urgent social and climate crises and strengthening essential services such as healthcare and emergency management, but in increasing military spending and deprioritizing Indigenous initiatives and social welfare programs.

Moving forward we hope that Canada recognizes that its fiscal anchors have always been its people. Our national purpose should be shaped by and respond to the needs of people in Canada, as well as communities around the globe who also seek to live in dignity and peace. Solidarity over division. Compassion over apathy. Diplomacy over aggression. Prosperity—not austerity. CFSC hopes the right choices will be made as Canda continues to navigate a domestic and international landscape full of unpredictable human and economic forces.

Peace

In CFSC’s pre-budget submission, we called for a reframing of national security so that it encompasses social, human, and environmental security and recognizes that peacebuilding, humanitarian aid, and safeguarding all human rights will contribute to a strong, secure nation. Unfortunately, the federal budget is not aligned with this recommendation.

Despite NATO recognizing peacekeeping and humanitarian expenditures as part of defence commitments, there is no mention of peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, or diplomacy in the budget. While many may state this is an austerity budget, budget 2025 signals a profound shift in spending towards militarization, a movement that will see the government bolstering Canada’s defence industry and “rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF)” (Budget 2025, p.27).

We are concerned that at the same time the budget is cutting government program spending, including Veterans’ Affairs, Crown-Indigenous Relations, and International Development Assistance, it is increasing military spending and making the largest defence investment in decades, $81.8 billlion over five years (Budget 2025, p.185). There is no austerity in these budget lines. Billions of dollars will go towards recruitment, training, defence infrastructure, AI, and improving cyber defence capabilities. A new Defence Industrial Strategy will spend $6.6 billion over five years to strengthen Canada’s defence industrial base, including by rebuilding domestic production capacity and strengthening supply chains (Budget 2025, p.186). A Defence Investment Agency has also been created to improve how Canada procures defence equipment and develops its military capacity (Budget 2025, pp.188-89). These defence investments will enable Canada to meet NATO’s 2% of GDP target this year, five years ahead of schedule, and be on track to meet NATO’s 5% Defence Investment Pledge by 2035 (Budget 2025, p. 27).

As critics point out, Budget 2025 is vague on the details of its military expenditures, offering only “broad strokes,” and lacking details of how the government plans to break down its spending year-by-year and what military equipment it plans to procure.[8] Others point to “a dangerous militarization of Canada’s economy and foreign policy” and the alarming implications of deepening “integration with US military strategy.”[9]

As the budget claims, over 75% of its actions are made to respond to global economic shifts, of which 42% is classified as protecting our sovereignty, including through defence investments and tariff response (Budget 2025, p. 6). CFSC believes that this overemphasis on national sovereignty and security has led to deprioritization of essential services and responses to urgent social and environmental issues, including declining affordability, the climate crisis, and gaps in education, health, and infrastructure that still need to be closed for Indigenous peoples. As well as responding to wars and international conflicts, Canada should increase its disaster management capacity to effectively respond to the needs of civilians during natural disasters and public health emergencies.

In line with our pre-budget recommendations, CFSC calls for the reinvestment of defence spending to peacebuilding, domestic emergency preparedness, and humanitarian aid.  As Alexi White, Director at Maytree, concludes: “Bullets and bombs are not an excuse for ignoring hunger and homelessness.”[10]

Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights

Unlike other federal budgets in previous years, Budget 2025 does not have a dedicated chapter on Indigenous Peoples, perhaps an indicator that investments in Indigenous reconciliation, rights, self-determination, and welfare were not a priority for the federal government this year.

Indeed, many Indigenous leaders, organizations, advocates, and community members are expressing disappointment over a budget that does not reflect or effectively meet their needs. They are also expressing alarm over the 2% per year budget cuts that Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs (CIRNAC) will face (Budget 2025, pp. 299, 312). These cuts will amount to a total of $2.3 billion by spring 2030 and, labelled as efficiency cuts, will have yet to be determined consequences on the essential services and supports that Indigenous Peoples rely on, including child and family services, primary health care, and essential community infrastructure. Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodstock Nepinak states that the budget “did not include any generational investments to close the First Nations education gaps that exist in this country,” and will “make things worse” as it fails to allocate the substantive funding needed to close socioeconomic gaps that continue to result in lower education, health, and justice outcomes for First Nations.[11] While transfer payments to provinces were left intact, cuts to ISC and CIRNAC represent a blow to reconciliation.

With Indigenous organizations such as the AFN and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) estimating that more than $425 billion is needed to close the infrastructure gap in Indigenous communities by 2030[12], there was hope that the budget would set Canada on a path to closing this gap. However, with the budget cuts to ISC and CIRNAC, no new money for housing (the budget confirms $2.8 billion remains for urban, rural, and northern Indigenous housing, p.159), and currently no guaranteed funding for other Indigenous-specific programming, such as on-reserve education, emergency management, and Jordan’s Principle, past 2025-2026 (See Budget 2025, Table A1.18, p.274), this was far from the case.

We are happy to see that new funding does exist for renewing the First Nations Water and Wastewater Enhanced Program and strengthening First Nations access to clean water ($2.3 billion over three years, Budget 2025, pp.158-159), and for Indigenous consultations on major projects being fast-tracked through the regulatory process under the Building Canada Act ($10.1 million over three years, Budget 2025, p.81). The budget also contains the Carney government’s explicit reference to free, prior, and informed consent. The section regarding the Major Projects Office, created under the One Canadian Economy Act to accelerate major energy project development, states that “the government will uphold Sec. 35 of our Constitution and the duty to consult, and the government’s commitment to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including free, prior, and informed consent, as we build Canada strong” (Budget 2025, p. 83). While this is what many Indigenous Peoples have been wanting to hear, the government does need to translate this commitment into action that is led by and responsive to the needs and interests of Indigenous Peoples. It is crucial that Canada does not mistake unilateral decision-making and fast-tracked approvals for true and meaningful consultation and collaboration. Projects that infringe upon the rights of Indigenous Peoples, rights enshrined in domestic law and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, will not make Canada strong, rather, it will divide us.

However, CFSC is deeply disappointed by the setbacks in Indigenous-specific funding presented by the budget and its failure to meet many of our pre-budget recommendations, including ensuring there is sustained funding for ISC as an essential service provider for Indigenous Peoples and increasing funding (over 2024 levels) for advancing rights-based discussions with Rightsholders. We hoped that the government would exempt essential services for Indigenous communities from budget reductions, while also continuing to work with Indigenous Peoples to lay a collaborative path towards reconciliation, including putting the necessary structures in place to advance the UN Declaration and the Declaration Act.

The government has recognized that barriers to the Declaration Act’s implementation include “combined perceptions of disorganisation, unclear timelines and an absence of public implementation plans.”[13] As a result, many pre-budget submissions from Indigenous groups identified the need for Canada to expand capacity and provide sufficient funding that would move the Declaration Act beyond a symbolic gesture into powerful, impactful, and coherent implementation. AFN’s submission identified $30 million needed over the next five years “to continue the important work of implementation, including processes, mechanisms and legislation to ensure First Nations’ free, prior and informed consent.”[14] However, the budget misses the mark, failing to tackle these issues as well as to provide plans and measures needed for the implementation of the UN Declaration in all jurisdictions in Canada.

Despite the vague details present in the budget, CFSC does believe there is an opportunity for government to restore and sustain trust from many Indigenous Peoples who require and deserve clear, actionable steps towards the fulfilment of their title and rights, including Treaty rights.

Transformative Justice

For CFSC, transformative justice is about balance, restoration, and healing – finding and implementing alternatives to prison and encouraging restorative and rehabilitative practices. Budget 2025 takes a markedly different approach to justice, promising to “keep Canadians safe” by focusing on strengthening its borders, increasing policing capacity, and making bail and sentencing laws stricter for repeat and violent offending (Budget 2025, p. 26).

These “tough on crime” measures, including hiring 1000 new RCMP officers (Budget 2025, p.192) and introducing the Bail and Sentencing Reform Act (Budget 2025, p.26) that would reduce the incidence of bail through reverse onuses, speak to a move towards punitive – not restorative – justice measures. These measures will lead to increased incarceration costs and will prevent resources from being allocated to more productive social investments that could better address the root causes of an individual’s contact with the justice system.

For example, in the province of British Columbia, the BC First Nations Justice Council (BCFNJC) is championing the presumption of diversion by creating and entrenching culturally appropriate, alternative responses at every point in the justice system. These responses will ensure an Indigenous person can be diverted from prisons and avoid future harmful and triggering interactions with police. They will instead be connected to culturally appropriate, community-based services and supports that prioritize healing, repair and reintegration. BCFNJC has recently launched the first-of-its-kind Indigenous Diversion Centre in Prince George. Funded by Public Safety Canada, the program accepts participants who are at risk for incarceration or have been recently released from prison and provides them with personalized healing supports, including social worker support, land-based teachings, Elder support, and counselling. BCFNJC Chair Kory Wilson states that the program will save taxpayers’ dollars, noting that it costs up to $282 000 annually to keep someone incarcerated in BC.[15]

Supporting and investing in innovative Indigenous initiatives such as the Indigenous Diversion Centre will lead to cost-effective solutions that result in government savings due to reduced recidivism and lower justice system costs per participant. These initiatives should be there to serve an Indigenous person’s ability to connect to the healing care and teachings of their communities so that they never reoffend again. Importantly, creating alternatives to the mainstream justice system deepens the compassion and understanding that is devoid from many current policies – it acknowledges the historical role the justice system has played in enforcing colonial rule. Canada must move beyond systems that were never designed by and for Indigenous people.

The justice system was weaponized for centuries against Indigenous people to remove their rights and silence their voices. We now have the opportunity for Canada’s justice approach to be informed by and responsive to the intergenerational trauma, fear, and distrust that Indigenous people experience when they encounter the justice system. Investing in Indigenous self-determination over justice is smart, cost-effective, and in alignment with the many justice priorities and commitments contained in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Declaration Act. CFSC hopes that Canada takes future steps to realize the cost-saving potential of diversion and restorative justice absent from the budget.

Part of addressing the root causes of the poverty-to-prison pipeline is investing in poverty reduction and ensuring people have access to the supports they need to thrive, overcome longstanding socioeconomic gaps, and become healthy members of the community. There can be no prosperity without affordability. CFSC is saddened to see that Budget 2025 fails to deliver important poverty reduction measures and does not meet CFSC’s recommendation to treat a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income program as an effective approach to preventing incarceration from the start and helping people reintegrate back into their communities after they exit incarceration.

While existing programs like the National School Food Program, Canada Child Benefit, and Canada Disability Benefit are maintained, the budget lacks significant new poverty reduction measures to fulfill Canada’s commitment under the Opportunity for All – Canada’s First Poverty Reduction Strategy to reduce poverty by 50% by 2030 (relative to 2015 levels). Advocates and organizations are worried about Canada’s lagging progress and rising rates of poverty and homelessness in Canada. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) warns these climbing rates and waning interest from the government to address them means that Canada could miss its 2030 target and fall behind the 2020 benchmark it already achieved.[16] CCPA notes that “the conversation has shifted toward fiscal restraint, budget cuts, and austerity measures, even as millions of Canadians struggle to make ends meet… The cost of inaction on poverty far outweighs any investment required to address it.”[17]

The Budget has shown that the government listened and was responsive to civil-society and many people with regards to equality issues. CFSC’s pre-budget submission called on Canada to recommit sustainable and long-term funding to the Department of Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), and we are heartened to see that new funding for WAGE in Budget 2025 includes $600.5 million over five years (Budget 2025, p.169). This funding is broken down into three streams, support for 2SLGBTQI+ communities ($54.6 million over five years), strengthening federal action to combat gender-based violence ($223.4 million over five years), and advancing women’s equality in Canada (382.5 million over five years)

However, CFSC is aware that the budget does not provide sufficient support for Indigenous women, girls, and Two Spirit (2S+) individuals who are working to implement the National Inquiry’s Calls for Justice and dismantle the violent structures and systems that allow the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG2S+) Crisis to continue. The National Survivors and Family Circle welcomed the dedicated funding for WAGE but notes the budget “does not respond to the urgent specific needs identified in the Calls for Justice, nor does it reflect the scale of commitment required from Canada to end this crisis.”[18]

CFSC wishes to note concern for the cuts to temporary immigration and refugees resettling from abroad. These cuts include reducing targets for new temporary residents by 43% (from 673,650 to 385,000 next year). While the budget proposes a one-time initiative that would recognize eligible refugees (referred to as “protected persons”) in Canada as permanent residents (Budget 2025, p. 196), there are concerns regarding the overall cuts in targets for refugees, humanitarian applications, and temporary residents, including students and foreign workers. These cuts have been called “a retreat from Canada’s humanitarian obligations and a doubling down on the scapegoating of migrants for the housing and affordability crisis,” by the Migrant Rights Network.[19] CFSC believes that it is important that Canada uphold its humanitarian obligations and to acknowledge the valuable and important role that newcomers play in building and contributing to our society.

Moving forward, CFSC hopes to see future commitments and developments from the government to uphold transformational justice as a national priority and interest, recognizing that when the people of Canada are well and able to exercise their freedom and rights without discrimination, this vitality and strength is reflected in the economy.

[1] Main Estimates are the government’s spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year that are submitted to Parliament for approval by March 1^st each year. For more information on Parliament’s financial procedures see: https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/our-procedure/financialProcedures/

[2] Department of Finance Canada. (2025, October 6). Modernizing Canada’s Budgeting Approach. Government of Canada. Retrieved November 4, 2025, from https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/10/modernizing-canadas-budgeting-approach.html

[3] Department of Finance Canada. (2025, October 6). “Government of Canada Modernizes Its Budgeting Approach to Deliver Generational Investments.” Government of Canada. Retrieved November 4, 2025, from: www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/10/government-of-canada-modernizes-its-budgeting-approach-to-deliver-generational-investments.html.

[4] Budget 2025 can be access and read online at: https://budget.canada.ca/2025/report-rapport/pdf/budget-2025.pdf . All numbers and data are referenced from the budget, unless otherwise noted.

[5] Forester, B. (2025, November 4). Indigenous programs face $2.3B in cuts, some new money in Carney’s 1st budget. CBC. Retrieved: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-budget-2025-9.6966648

[6] Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. (2025, November 5). Federal Budget 2025 Must Move First Nations from Uncertainty to Prosperity – This Budget Fails to Provide Vital Treaty and Sovereign Nation-Based Investments and Direct First Nations Streams. Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. Retrieved: https://manitobachiefs.com/press_releases/federal-budget-2025-response/

[7] Department of Finance Canada. (2025, November 4). Budget 2025: Remarks by the Minister of Finance and National Revenue. Canada.ca. Retrieved https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/11/budget-2025-remarks-by-the-minister-of-finance-and-national-revenue.html

[8] Brewster, M. (2025, November 5). Budget touts $81.8B defence investment as a sovereignty ‘blueprint’ but offers only rough fiscal sketches. CBC. Retrieved: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/defence-carney-budget-military-spending-9.6965349

[9]RNAO (2025, November 3). RNAO urges Prime Minister Mark Carney to put health, equity and sustainability ahead of militarization and austerity in upcoming federal budget RNAO. Retrieved https://rnao.ca/news/media-releases/rnao-urges-prime-minister-mark-carney-to-put-health-equity-and-sustainability

[10] White, A. (2024, September 4). To address poverty, the federal government must first deal with the budgetary elephant in the room. Maytree. Retrieved https://maytree.com/publications/to-address-poverty-the-federal-government-must-first-deal-with-the-budgetary-elephant-in-the-room/#:~:3

[11]Needham, F (2025, November 6). Indigenous leaders say budget misses historic opportunity to address socio-economic gaps. APTN News. Retrieved: https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/indigenous-leaders-say-budget-misses-historic-opportunity-to-address-socio-economic-gaps/

[12]Spear Chief-Morris, J. (2025, October 23). Indigenous leaders skeptical federal budget will deliver on 2030 infrastructure promise. CBC. Retrieved: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/federal-budget-indigenous-infrastructure-9.6948675

[13] Department of Justice, Canada. (2025, August 21). Fourth annual progress report on implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/declaration/report-rapport/2025/index.html

[14] Assembly of First Nations. (2025, August 25). National Chief calls for accelerated action on implementing the UN Declaration Act following release of federal Report. AFN. Retrieved: https://afn.ca/all-news/bulletins/national-chief-calls-for-accelerated-action-on-implementing-the-un-declaration-act-following-release-of-federal-report/

[15]  Hosgood, A. (2025, October 15). How a New Approach Will Keep Indigenous People Out of Jail: A new diversion centre in Prince George will offer alternatives to criminal charges for non-violent crimes. The Tyee. Retrieved: https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/10/15/Indigenous-Diversion-Centre-Jail-Alternative-Non-Violent-Crimes/

[16]Rezaee, J. R., Sarangi, L. (2025, October 21). Canada set a poverty reduction goal. We’re falling behind. CCPA. Retrieved: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/canada-set-a-poverty-reduction-goal-were-falling-behind/

[17] Ibid.

[18]National Family and Survivors Circle Inc. (2025, November 5). National Family and Survivors Circle calls immediate action to uphold human security and rights of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people Following federal Budget 2025. GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/11/05/3182094/0/en/National-Family-and-Survivors-Circle-Calls-Immediate-Action-to-Uphold-Human-Security-and-Rights-of-Indigenous-Women-Girls-and-2SLGBTQQIA-People-Following-Federal-Budget-2025.html

[19] Hussan, S. (2025, November 5). Migrant Rights Network Response to Budget 2025. Migrant Rights Network. Retrieved: https://migrantrights.ca/budget2025response/