Federal Budget 2026 and the economics of getting safe
For two years, Battered Women’s Support Services has spoken with women and frontline workers across B.C. about what it takes to get safe and stay safe when a partner is abusive. More than 50 organizations helped carry that work into communities through The Downplay Effect. At our September roundtable at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention, we put a question to local leaders. What would public safety look like if it were designed with survivors?
In our specialized intimate partner violence response, we see how government decisions can narrow a woman’s options as she tries to get safe. A woman finds an apartment she can afford. Moving costs her the childcare that lets her work. She loses shifts and can no longer cover the rent. Her former partner may still be stalking her or using custody to maintain control. Our 60 Barriers to Leaving show how an option she worked to secure can close.
Women’s lives and safety should shape Ottawa’s biggest and most durable choices. In our conversations across B.C., women and frontline workers told us what women need to count on. Safe homes, money they control, affordable food, decent work, childcare, healthcare, access to birth control and abortion, and skilled help when a partner threatens their safety. BWSS asked Ottawa to invest an additional $4.4 billion over five years in specialized frontline services, survivor housing, healing and economic independence. Budget 2026 makes significant investments in supportive and transitional housing, but it leaves second-stage housing for survivors without a dedicated allocation and carries forward July’s gender-based violence commitment without guaranteeing a share for specialized frontline services.
On November 6, BWSS co-hosted a national feminist response with the Canadian Women’s Foundation and Women’s Shelters Canada.
Masters? Whose destiny?
As Oxfam Canada points out, the permanent Productivity Mega Deduction is projected to cost about $36 billion over five years, more than the $30.7 billion in the budget’s affordability chapter over the same period. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates that 29 per cent of the deduction would go to oil extraction and refining and another 10 per cent to mining. Finance Canada’s own gender analysis says the owners and shareholders positioned to benefit tend to be men, older, and higher-income. Ottawa gives eligible businesses permanent terms they can plan around and asks workers to count on the gains trickling down.
Budget 2026 in brief · Finance Canada’s gender analysis · CCPA analysis
Masters of Our Destiny carries an uncomfortable echo of Manifest Destiny. Resource development supports livelihoods in B.C. People want secure work. First Nations’ authority and consent must shape decisions about their lands, and governments must answer for who profits and who bears the costs. We welcome renewed support for Manitoba’s Red Dress Alert pilot. As the Canadian Women’s Foundation warns, the safety of Indigenous women and girls needs urgent attention as major projects advance. Indigenous-led prevention needs funding and a place in those decisions before projects proceed.
Budget 2026, Chapter 4 · Canadian Women’s Foundation response
At the webinar, CCPA’s Katherine Scott warned that rising defence commitments and corporate tax relief would put more pressure on public services as federal program spending declines as a share of GDP. Canada had already reached NATO’s earlier 2 per cent benchmark and was planning to go further. Childcare shows who can end up absorbing that pressure. YWCA Canada’s report card projects funding will fall from $11 billion in 2027–28 to $8.2 billion the following year as temporary funding ends. When care falls through, women often pay in lost wages and unpaid hours. Oxfam’s Diana Sarosi proposed a wealth tax on the richest Canadians and a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies to fund lasting public services.
Organizing secured real gains. LEAF points to multi-year funding directed to communities through Canada’s Black Justice Strategy. Queer and trans organizing secured $15 million annually on an ongoing basis for the renewed federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan.
Ten national women’s rights organizations called for $10 million annually for five years in flexible operational funding, beginning in 2027–28. The House of Commons Finance Committee recommended the funding. Budget 2026 recognizes the value of their work and leaves that request unfunded. The broader Women’s Program increase of $8 million over four years and $2 million annually ongoing serves a separate purpose. The coalition points to Ottawa’s willingness to fund the ongoing operations of national sport organizations. Women’s rights organizations need that same stability to retain skilled staff and sustain the legal, research, and policy work that protects women’s rights.
BWSS supports the coalition’s call for Ottawa to make that commitment in the Spring Economic Update or sooner.
Joint statement from ten national women’s rights organizations · LEAF’s budget response · Canadian Women’s Foundation response
What BWSS asked Ottawa to fund
Our proposal allocates $400 million for specialized frontline capacity, $2 billion for survivor housing, $1 billion for healing and rehabilitation, and $1 billion for economic freedom. We proposed capital funding toward at least 5,000 survivor homes, portable rent support for about 10,000 survivor households annually, and healing services at about 250 community-based and Indigenous-led sites. We also proposed paid pathways into education and work and a demonstration pairing liveable income with portable rent support. Those investments belong together. The dedicated healing and economic independence measures we proposed remain unfunded.
The safe homes women need
BWSS welcomes Ottawa’s commitment to put Canada on a path to end homelessness within ten years. Ottawa proposes $3.6 billion over four years from 2027–28, plus $6.4 billion in future years, through Build Canada Homes to build supportive and transitional housing. A separate Integrated Supports Fund would receive $1.8 billion over those same four years, plus $3.2 billion in future years, to bring housing together with health and social supports. The two streams account for $5.4 billion over the first four years. For the construction stream, Ottawa expects provinces and territories to fund ongoing operations and services. The budget sets no dedicated allocation for second-stage survivor housing or access target for older women. As Khulud Baig asked at the webinar, who will have the resources to develop, own, and operate this housing? If private equity is involved, who will set the rents and what will keep them affordable?
Women need affordable homes they can keep through changes in work, family, health, and age. A woman leaving violence may need a confidential place tonight, second-stage housing while she rebuilds, and a permanent home afterward. A woman over 65 on a fixed income may stay with the person harming her because she cannot afford an accessible home or replace the daily care she relies on. A city can report fewer encampments and a province can report more treatment placements while she never appears in either count. Making treatment a condition of housing can narrow her options further. So can neighbourhood opposition that stalls social housing or pushes it away from healthcare, childcare, and transit.
Ottawa should tie capital to lasting affordability, dedicated survivor access, and signed multi-year operating commitments. B.C.’s new government should fund skilled staff, voluntary supports, and rent assistance that follows a woman who moves for safety. Thirty candidates who committed to action on intimate partner violence were elected to municipal office in B.C. They can help get social housing approved near the services women need, including where neighbours object.
What the next Canada–B.C. agreement must deliver
Housing counts can miss women who have nowhere safe to go. Service counts can register a referral while a woman still cannot reach an Intimate Partner Violence response specialist. A specialist who knows her situation can recognize when a new threat signals escalating danger. If funding uncertainty costs the organization that specialist, she may have to start telling her story again while the danger is changing.
BWSS welcomed July’s $607.4 million over four years to renew provincial and territorial agreements under the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. We asked Ottawa for $80 million more annually for five years and for at least half of the combined investment to reach direct, specialized community-based and Indigenous-led services. Budget 2026 carries forward July’s commitment without that increase or a guaranteed frontline share.
What will Ottawa require, and what will B.C. guarantee?
Ottawa should write the 50 per cent frontline minimum into the agreement and fund an independent federal GBV commissioner. B.C. should put its frontline share into multi-year operating agreements with direct service providers. Each quarter, B.C. should publish how much reached those providers and what it delivered in staffing, wait times, prevention, and support after separation. Frontline and Indigenous-led organizations should help set the terms before the agreement is signed. The test is whether a woman can get a home she can afford, keep control over her care, and reach a specialist when danger changes, this week and six months after she leaves.
LEAF response
