WomanACT Statement on Canada’s Budget 2026

---

WomanACT welcomes the federal government’s continued investment through Budget 2026 in gender equality, addressing gender-based violence (GBV), and initiatives that support the economic security, participation, and well-being of women, girls, and gender-diverse people across Canada.

Budget 2026 recognizes that building a stronger Canadian economy requires removing the systemic barriers that prevent people from participating fully in education, employment, and economic life. Importantly, it acknowledges that gender-based violence has consequences that extend beyond immediate safety, affecting survivors’ education, employment opportunities, financial well-being, and ability to participate in the economy.

We are encouraged by several commitments in Budget 2026, particularly the renewal of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, progress toward the Code of Conduct for the Prevention of Economic Abuse, and investments in online safety and gender equality. These measures represent important opportunities to advance a coordinated, whole-of-society approach to preventing and addressing gender-based violence.

At the same time, sustained progress will depend on how these commitments are implemented, whether community organizations have the resources to contribute meaningfully, and whether prevention and survivor-centred approaches are embedded across government priorities.  

Budget 2026 applied Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) at the “early stage” to 52% of its measures. While it is encouraging to see gender and diversity considerations informing budget decisions, this figure should be higher. A budget intended to benefit everyone in Canada must also account for the unequal barriers that shape who can access and benefit from its investments at every stage. These barriers fall hardest on Indigenous, Black and racialized women, immigrant and refugee women, women with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQI+ and gender diverse people.

The government’s GBA Plus analysis also shows that 79% of measures with a gendered impact are expected to benefit “predominantly men” (12) or “majority men” (60), compared with 16 measures benefiting “majority women” and 3 “predominantly women”. This imbalance reflects broader inequalities in women’s representation and access to economic opportunities and resources and underscores the need for more consistent gender-responsive analysis in policy and budget design.

Summary of Key Actions in Budget 2026 related to Gender Equality and Gender-Based Violence
• $607.4M/ 4 years supporting the continued implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence
• $70M/2 years to improve access to menstrual products through the Menstrual Equity Fund
• $60M / 4 years + $15M ongoing funding under the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan
• $176.3M / 5 years + $29.3M ongoing to strengthen protections for Canadians online through the establishment of a Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission
• Supporting the development and implementation of the Code of Conduct for the Prevention of Economic Abuse
• $8M / 4 years + $2M ongoing to advance gender equality through the Women’s Program
• $11.2B / 4 years for National homelessness and housing investments

_{Source: Government of Canada, Budget 2026: Annex 4, Department of Finance Canada. Retrieved from https://budget.canada.ca/2026/report-rapport/pdf/budget-2026-annex-4.pdf}

Sustaining action to end gender-based violence

WomanACT welcomes the federal government’s commitment of $607.4 million over four years, beginning in 2027–28, to renew bilateral agreements with provinces and territories under the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (NAP). We also welcome the additional $31 million over five years, with $6.2 million ongoing, to renew funding for provincial and territorial crisis hotlines.

However, continuity must be accompanied by a commitment to scale. As the initial bilateral agreements approach their conclusion, the next phase of the NAP must build on existing progress with adequate, sustained funding that reflects the increasing demand for services and the scale of GBV across Canada. In response to Budget 2026, WomanACT joined over 200 GBV organizations across Canada in endorsing Women’s Shelters Canada’s statement on the NAP funding, calling for accountability and transparency. WomanACT supports calls for stable, multi-year funding for GBV organizations, including administrative costs, to fill service gaps and sustain programming to respond to and prevent GBV.

While the budget recognizes the importance of prevention, it does not include a clearly identified new federal commitment to comprehensive GBV prevention education across schools, post-secondary institutions, and workplaces to support cultural change, despite several new educational initiatives focused on workforce skills.

We encourage federal, provincial, and territorial governments to prioritize primary prevention within the renewed agreements, including education and awareness initiatives in schools, post-secondary institutions, workplaces, and communities. Prevention must address the root causes of violence, including harmful gender norms, discrimination, harassment, and unequal power relations, while engaging men and boys as active participants in creating safer communities.

Preventing economic abuse and strengthening financial security

WomanACT is particularly encouraged by the progress toward developing the Code of Conduct for the Prevention of Economic Abuse, first announced in Budget 2025. Economic abuse is a common yet often overlooked form of gender-based violence. It can involve restricting access to money, accumulating debt in a partner’s name, sabotaging employment, financial surveillance, and using banking and digital technologies to maintain control.

WomanACT has contributed to federal engagement on the development of the Code of Conduct and its principles, including facilitating survivor consultations on the Code through our EASE (Economic Abuse Support & Empowerment) project’s Survivor Advisory Group. These engagements reinforce the importance of ensuring that financial institutions understand the realities of economic abuse and have the knowledge, tools, and accountability mechanisms to respond appropriately. We look forward to continued collaboration to ensure that the Code’s implementation is grounded in survivor experiences and addresses the full range of economic and financial abuse.

We welcome the progress in negotiating the Code with banks, including proposed expectations around employee training, internal safeguards, escalation processes, public reporting, and oversight by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). However, as important as this development is, the voluntary nature of a Code of Conduct means that additional safeguards should be in place to support survivors and prevent abuse from occurring. Financial institutions should not only respond to economic abuse but also leverage technological enhancements (such as the ethical use of AI) to implement systems, education, and safeguards that help prevent it from occurring in the first place. WomanACT calls on the government to allocate resources toward educating service providers and raising awareness about the rollout of the Code, coerced debt relief for survivors, and initiatives and incentives to prevent economic abuse, including technology-facilitated economic abuse.

Advancing safety and gender equity in education and employment

Budget 2026 recognizes education, skills development, and women’s participation in traditionally male-dominated sectors as drivers of Canada’s economic future. We welcome investments that support women’s economic participation, including renewing the Women’s Program and measures to strengthen education and workforce opportunities.

The budget’s gender analysis acknowledges that women remain significantly underrepresented in mining, representing just 15.7% of the workforce compared with 47.2% across all industries. It also identifies opportunities to improve participation through inclusive hiring, bursaries, and performance indicators that track opportunities for underrepresented students and early-career researchers. These measures echo the policy recommendations from WomanACT’s  Advancing Equality: Addressing Workplace Harassment through Policy Change in the STEM Sector project and its STEM Podcast series, which features industry partners, survivor advocates, and gender equity experts discussing barriers including gender bias, discrimination, sexual harassment, and unsafe workplace cultures that continue to undermine women’s participation, retention, and career progression.

WomanACT encourages the government to pair these workforce investments with dedicated resources for preventing harassment and violence, so that women can not only enter these sectors but stay and advance in them safely. This should include standardized retention-focused supports such as affordable childcare access, parental leave top-ups, and workplace flexibility; requiring professional licensing and regulatory bodies to embed anti-harassment standards, reporting mechanisms, and accountability measures into accreditation requirements; moving beyond voluntary diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments toward enforceable participation and reporting requirements; expanding mentorship, sponsorship, and scholarship opportunities for women; establishing confidential third-party reporting mechanisms in field-based workplaces and research environments; and strengthening health and safety standards to ensure access to properly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE), adequate washroom facilities, and other workplace infrastructure that meets women’s needs.

Building safer digital environments and responsible AI governance

WomanACT also welcomes Budget 2026’s investments in online safety and the establishment of the Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission of Canada. The proposed Commission, supported by approximately $206 million over five years, represents an important step toward strengthening oversight and accountability for online harms.

The budget also advances legislative measures through Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, and Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act. These initiatives respond to growing concerns about harmful online content, privacy violations, and the misuse of personal information.

Women, girls, and gender-diverse people experience disproportionate exposure to technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including non-consensual intimate imagery, sexualized deepfakes, impersonation, online harassment, stalking, surveillance, and coercive control. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in everyday technologies and services, these harms can become more sophisticated and difficult to identify and address.

WomanACT has been actively contributing to this policy landscape through consultations on Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, AI for All. Our submission to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on Enhancing Trust in Artificial Intelligence Through Increased Transparency drew on feedback from frontline GBV organizations, survivors, sector professionals, and WomanACT members. It called for gender-responsive transparency requirements, stronger platform accountability, rapid removal mechanisms for harmful content, safety-by-design obligations, improved tracking of AI-facilitated GBV, and meaningful survivor and sector participation in AI governance.

We welcome the government’s broader investment in AI safety and responsible AI development. However, as the government advances its $2-billion AI for All strategy, it must consider gender-based and intersectional impacts throughout the development, deployment, and regulation of these technologies. Budget 2026’s impact report states that the benefits delivered under its AI for All Canadians – AI for All strategy will benefit “predominantly men” and “majority high-income people,” raising concerns about how gender-responsive the strategy will be upon implementation.

We encourage the government to build on the recommendations in WomanACT’s submission by ensuring that AI governance includes dedicated attention to technology-facilitated GBV, digital consent and literacy, survivor privacy, and the impacts of algorithmic bias. GBV organizations and survivors must be resourced to help shape these frameworks, rather than being left to respond to harms after they occur.

Recognizing the connection between housing, economic security, and safety

WomanACT is encouraged by Budget 2026’s historic investments in addressing homelessness, expanding non-market housing, supporting low-income renters, and its goal of ending homelessness altogether within 10 years. These measures recognize that housing stability and access to essential supports are fundamental to individual and community well-being.

For survivors of GBV, access to safe and affordable housing can determine whether they can leave an abusive relationship, maintain their independence, and rebuild their lives. Housing insecurity can also increase vulnerability to continued violence and economic exploitation.

Our research and policy advocacy have consistently highlighted the relationship between intimate partner violence, hidden homelessness, and barriers to accessing safe housing. We welcome the proposed investment of nearly $30 billion in transitional and supportive housing delivered through initiatives including Build Canada Homes, and the renewal of the Canada Housing Benefit.

As these investments move forward, we encourage governments to ensure survivors of GBV are explicitly considered in housing and homelessness strategies, and in the day-to-day operation of the systems that deliver them. Benefits such as the renewed Canada Housing Benefit that provide rental assistance to low-income Canadians, including survivors of GBV, should be accessible in practice. This includes ensuring that eligibility criteria recognize hidden homelessness and the nonlinear ways survivors may leave an abusive partner; expanding access to second-stage and transitional housing, supporting survivors to remain safely in their own homes where possible, and ensuring that appropriate trauma-informed and wraparound supports accompany housing initiatives.

Next steps

Budget 2026 makes important commitments toward advancing gender equality, strengthening survivor supports, and addressing some of the systemic barriers that contribute to gender-based violence. The next step is ensuring these commitments translate into meaningful, measurable change.

WomanACT calls on federal, provincial, and territorial governments to:

1. Scale up the National Action Plan. Renewed bilateral agreements should come with sustained funding that reflects rising demand for services.
2. Invest in primary prevention. Fund comprehensive GBV prevention education in schools, post-secondary institutions, workplaces, and communities that addresses root causes, including harmful gender norms and unequal power relations.
3. Provide stable core funding for the GBV sector. Ensure that community organizations and frontline agencies have multi-year, predictable funding so they can meet demand and help implement federal commitments.
4. Resource the response to economic abuse. Fund awareness and service-provider education on the Code of Conduct for the Prevention of Economic Abuse, coerced debt relief for survivors, and initiatives to prevent economic abuse, including technology-facilitated economic abuse.
5. Ensure that investments match investments in workforce participation in workplace safety, equity, and retention. This includes funding and regulatory measures that address harassment and violence, strengthen employer accountability, improve access to childcare and family supports, require anti-harassment and reporting mechanisms through professional and licensing bodies, expand mentorship and scholarship opportunities, and establish workplace safety standards that reflect the realities of women working in trades, STEM, research, and field-based environments.
6. Make AI governance gender-responsive. Apply gender-based and intersectional analysis throughout the AI for All strategy, and fund survivors and GBV organizations to help shape AI and online safety frameworks.
7. Make housing benefits work for survivors. Design eligibility criteria that recognize hidden homelessness and the non-linear ways survivors leave abusive relationships, and expand access to second-stage and transitional housing with trauma-informed, wraparound supports.

WomanACT looks forward to continuing to work alongside governments, financial institutions, industry partners, community organizations, and women with lived experience to advance these priorities. Through sustained investment, cross-sector collaboration, and survivor-centred policy development, we can create the conditions for women and gender-diverse people to participate fully in their communities and economies, free from violence.

About WomanACT

WomanACT is a charitable organization that works collaboratively to end violence against women and gender-diverse people through research, policy, education, and community coordination. Since 1991, WomanACT has brought together a network of member agencies serving survivors of gender-based violence across Toronto. We work with women with lived experience to advance survivor-centred, evidence-informed solutions to gender-based violence.

Media Contact

Aakanksha Mathur (she/her)  
Manager of Public Policy, Advocacy and Communications  
WomanACT  
416-944-9242 Ext. 231  
amathur@womanact.ca  
womanact.ca