Nurses say federal budget must put health and wellbeing ahead of corporate concessions, fossil fuel projects and military expansion

TORONTO, Nov. 3, 2026 /CNW/ -- With the federal government preparing to table its budget on Nov. 5, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to put the health and wellbeing of people in Canada at the centre of every fiscal decision.

The government has described its agenda as a plan for growth, resilience and affordability. Yet its policies and announcements point to extraordinary fiscal resources for corporate tax concessions, fossil fuel-dependent major projects and rapidly escalating military expenditures. Meanwhile, health care, housing, income security, climate action and other essential public programs face inadequate funding, erosion or cuts.

RNAO says the budget must be judged by whether it improves people's lives, reduces poverty and inequality, protects the climate, advances reconciliation, strengthens public services and safeguards universal access to health care.

"Canada is facing fundamental challenges in health care, the nursing workforce, housing affordability and climate change," says RNAO President Sue LeBeau. "Public resources should be directed towards strengthening medicare, growing the nursing workforce, addressing poverty and housing insecurity, and protecting people from the devastating health impacts of climate change. These are the foundations of a healthy society and a resilient economy."

Fiscal choices reveal government priorities

Canada has the capacity to ensure everyone has the conditions needed to live a healthy life. The central fiscal question is where public resources are directed, who benefits and what trade-offs people in Canada are asked to accept.

The government's Productivity Mega Deduction illustrates the choices at stake. Announced in September, it will allow businesses to immediately deduct the full cost of a much broader range of capital investments. The federal government estimates it will reduce public revenues by $36 billion over five years, beginning in 2026–27. Eligible investments include mining property and oil and gas pipelines.

A tax expenditure is public spending delivered through the tax system. Ottawa must disclose which corporations, sectors and investors will receive the greatest benefits, how much will flow to foreign-owned corporations and what health and social investments will be crowded out as federal revenues decline.

Any public support for business investment must produce measurable public benefits, including good jobs, fair wages, emissions reductions, domestic reinvestment, respect for Indigenous rights and transparent accountability. It must not become an unconditional transfer of public wealth to profitable corporations and wealthy shareholders or a subsidy for fossil fuel expansion.

"The federal government has found $36 billion for a corporate tax concession that includes oil and gas pipelines, while the programs people rely on are deprived of needed investment," says RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun. "Ottawa must explain who will benefit, what enforceable public outcomes will result and what people in Canada will forgo. Public resources must serve the public good – not further concentrate corporate power and private wealth."

Affordability is inseparable from inequality

The affordability crisis is rooted not only in rising prices, but also in inadequate incomes, unaffordable housing, concentrated wealth and corporate power, and weakened public services. Fiscal policies that disproportionately enrich corporations and wealthy investors will intensify these conditions.

The budget must invest in deeply affordable and non-market housing, income and disability supports, food security, child care and universal public services. Ottawa must safeguard public revenues through fair taxation, action on tax avoidance and the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies. Highly profitable corporations and the wealthiest people in Canada must contribute their fair share.

Social programs and public services are not costs to be contained while corporate concessions, fossil fuel infrastructure and military procurement are presented as investments. Housing, income security, child care, health care and education improve health, support economic participation, reduce pressure on hospitals and strengthen communities.

Major projects must not override health, climate or Indigenous rights

RNAO has raised serious concerns about the federal government's major projects agenda. Through two submissions, including one addressing Bill C-39, RNAO has warned against weakening environmental and climate protections, limiting public participation and overriding Indigenous rights. RNAO has called on the government to withdraw Bill C-39.

Economic uncertainty and the trade war must not be used to justify expanded fossil fuel production, new subsidies for high-emission infrastructure or the rollback of environmental safeguards.

Climate change is already a health emergency. Extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, displacement, and food and water insecurity are harming people across Canada, particularly Indigenous Peoples, children, older adults and those with existing health conditions.

The budget must prioritize clean-energy infrastructure, implement Canada's National Adaptation Strategy and strengthen community resilience. Major project decisions must include rigorous assessment of cumulative health and climate impacts and uphold Indigenous jurisdiction, treaties, self-determination and free, prior and informed consent.

Military expansion carries an enormous opportunity cost

RNAO is deeply concerned about planned increases in military and defence spending. Governments have a responsibility to protect people, but security cannot be reduced to military capacity. Canada should not contribute to the conditions that create conflict and war.

People are not secure when they cannot afford a home or nutritious food, lack access to health care, live without clean water or face severe climate disasters. Nor are future generations made safer by an escalating international arms race.

The government must explain why staggering increases in military spending are taking precedence over ending homelessness, reducing poverty, strengthening medicare, advancing reconciliation and addressing the climate emergency. Canada should invest in diplomacy, conflict prevention, peacebuilding, nuclear disarmament, humanitarian assistance and equitable international development.

"Security means ensuring people have a home, adequate income, access to health care, clean water and protection from climate disasters," says LeBeau. "Rapidly escalating military expenditures divert resources from urgent human needs and contribute to a more dangerous world. Canada must choose diplomacy, peacebuilding and the conditions that allow people and communities to thrive."

Ottawa must fund and defend medicare

Canada's public health system faces two connected federal failures: an approaching decline in the growth of federal health funding and inadequate action to prevent two-tier care.

The temporary guarantee that the Canada Health Transfer will grow by at least five per cent annually ends after 2027–28. Growth will then return to a formula tied to the three-year moving average of nominal gross domestic product, subject to a three per cent floor. This could leave federal funding falling behind population growth, rising needs and care-delivery costs.

Ottawa must maintain the Canada Health Transfer escalator at no less than five per cent beyond 2027–28 and renew dedicated funding for home and community care, mental health and substance-use services, and long-term care.

The budget must also build Canada's nursing workforce through a funded, 10-year national nursing workforce strategy focused on retention, recruitment, educational capacity, safe staffing levels and healthy work environments.

Adequate funding alone is not enough. Alberta's Bill 11 creates an unprecedented dual-practice model that allows physicians to move between publicly funded and private-pay care. It is a direct attack on the universality and accessibility at the heart of the Canada Health Act. Ontario's Bill 60 has similarly accelerated the expansion of private, for-profit surgical and diagnostic clinics, drawing public funding and scarce health professionals away from the public system.

Ottawa's failure to respond decisively invites Ontario and other provinces to expand two-tier, for-profit care. The federal government must formally assess Alberta's Bill 11 and Ontario's Bill 60, establish clear compliance and enforcement timelines, prevent extra-billing and queue-jumping, and ensure federal health dollars do not subsidize privatization. If gaps in federal law allow parallel private systems to undermine universal access, Parliament must close them.

"Ottawa cannot call itself the guardian of medicare while allowing federal health transfers to approach a fiscal cliff and provincial governments to dismantle public health care," says Grinspun. "Alberta's Bill 11 is a direct attack on the Canada Health Act, while Ontario's Bill 60 has accelerated for-profit care. The federal government must adequately fund medicare, build the nursing workforce and enforce the Act before two-tier care becomes entrenched across Canada."

Choose health and wellbeing

In its pre-budget consultation submission sent to the minister of finance in September, RNAO called for action to strengthen medicare and the nursing workforce, address the social determinants of health, protect people from climate change and support sustainable public revenues.

The federal budget must go further. It must direct Canada's considerable resources towards the conditions that create health, reduce inequality and protect present and future generations.

Health begins with a safe and affordable home, adequate income, nutritious food, a stable climate, freedom from discrimination and violence, access to public services and the opportunity to live with dignity.

Budget 2026 must put these foundations of health and wellbeing ahead of corporate concessions, fossil fuel expansion and militarization.

The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) is the professional association representing registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students in Ontario. Since 1925, RNAO has advocated for healthy public policy, promoted excellence in nursing practice, increased nurses' contribution to shaping the health system, and influenced decisions that affect nurses and the public we serve. For more information about RNAO, visit RNAO.ca or follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario

For more information, please contact: Marion Zych, Director of Communications, Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO), 1-800-268-7199 ext. 209, 416-408-5605, 647-406-5605 (cell), [email protected]; Victoria Alarcon, Communications Officer/Writer, Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO), 1-800-268-7199 ext. 211, 416-408-5610, [email protected]