Just over a week ago, Realize sent out a message urging the Canadian government to take strong action in the federal budget to fulfill Canada’s human rights commitments and to help reverse dangerous trends in the global and domestic HIV response. Working with our partners in the Canadian HIV sector, we called for the government to:
- Increase investments in both global and domestic HIV programs to reflect the epidemic’s ongoing severity.
- Center equity and justice in the national HIV strategy, explicitly supporting communities facing criminalization, stigma, and structural disadvantage.
- Fund evidence-informed, community-led initiatives, including HIV self-testing, linkage-to-care programs, culturally safe harm reduction services, peer-based support, and access to innovative prevention tools like the long-acting injectable HIV drug, Lenacapavir.
- Strengthen Indigenous-led HIV initiatives with flexible, sustained funding and partnership frameworks.
- Reform harmful laws and policies that prevent access to HIV prevention and care —ensuring the budget signals political will to remove barriers, not entrench them.
Unfortunately, the federal budget, released this week on November 4, provides little clarity on these issues and in some instances hints at potential cutbacks in funding for important programs. Significant concerns include:
- There is no specific financial commitment outlined in the budget to the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria although the current pledging period is underway and the Fund is likely to be a topic of importance at the upcoming G20 meeting in South Africa at the end of this month, which Prime Minister Carney will attend.
- There are no specific commitments to Canada’s domestic response to the HIV crisis (Canada is the only G7 country experiencing rising HIV infection rates), leaving community organizations to guess at what the government’s response will be over the coming years in an already uncertain environment where community needs are changing and infection rates are rising.
- For the support sector serving people living with HIV and other blood-borne illnesses like hepatitis, the only directional references contained deep in the annexes of the budget (about the Public Health Agency of Canada) are in broad language suggesting the intention to “recalibrate” and “consolidate” programs. This uncertainty has the potential to hamstring important services and HIV response innovations.
Our concerns on the HIV front are echoed in our concerns on the broader disability front. Realize is an active partner in the National Disability Network and we have added our organizational voice to the following statement.
NATIONAL DISABILITY NETWORK STATEMENT ON BUDGET 2025
For immediate release – Ottawa, November 7, 2025
Budget 2025 Leaves 27% of Canadians Without a Plan to Participate in the Economy
Budget 2025 takes some steps to improve access but fails to recognize the economic imperative of including people with disabilities in Canada’s economy. People with disabilities (27% of Canadians aged 15 and over) contribute as workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers, yet remain excluded from meaningful economic participation. This budget provides no clear roadmap to enable this participation, offers no new adequacy funding for the Canada Disability Benefit, and creates a potential risk to disability programs given significant savings targets at Employment and Social Development Canada.
What the budget includes
- Steps to ease benefit access, including simplified tax filing for low-income Canadians
- Measures to support Disability Tax Credit (DTC) medical certification
- Signals that the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) may become ‘exempt from income’ for qualifying for other benefits.
- Measures to address negative effects on the value of the DTC as a result of reductions to marginal tax rates
We are pleased with these measures which should reduce some access barriers. However, without adequate benefits and supports, people with disabilities cannot fully participate in the economy.
What’s missing and what’s at risk
- No commitment to increase the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB)
- ESDC directed to achieve significant savings with no clarity on which programs face cuts (creating potential risk to disability-related programs)
- Eligibility for the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) remains tied to the restrictive Disability Tax Credit (DTC)
- Major federal housing and infrastructure investments lack clear, measurable accessibility requirements
What the National Disability Network is calling for
The National Disability Network calls on the federal government to:
- Publish a plan for the Canada Disability Benefit outlining a clear timeline for a fully funded and adequate benefit
- Broaden CDB eligibility beyond the Disability Tax Credit through co-design with disability-led organizations
- Ensure provincial and territorial governments do not claw back the CDB by reducing provincial and territorial disability benefits, so people receive the full value of the CDB
- Embed measurable accessibility requirements across all major federal investments
- Clarify the impact of ESDC program reductions and consult disability-led organizations consistent with CRPD Article 4.3, and advance Articles 12 and 19 by protecting legal capacity and funding community-based supports
The Government of Canada cannot advance its growth and prosperity agenda – and Canada cannot reach its full economic potential – if people with disabilities continue to be undervalued and excluded.
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| Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians | March of Dimes Canada |
| Canadian Association of the Deaf (CAD-ASC) | Muscular Dystrophy Canada |
| Autism Alliance of Canada | Alliance canadienne de l’autisme | People First of Canada |
| Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf | Plan Institute |
| Canadian Down Syndrome Society | Realize |
| CCRW | Rick Hansen Foundation |
| CNIB | Spinal Cord Injury Canada |
| Council of Canadians with Disabilities | Thunder Bay & District Injured Workers Support Group |
| Daily Bread Food Bank | Wavefront Centre for Communication Accessibility |
| Disability Without Poverty | Inclusion Canada |
| Environmental Health Association of Canada | Independent Living Canada |
| Environmental Health Association of Québec | Indigenous Disability Canada Disability Alliance BC |
| L’Arche Canada |
Media contact
National Disability Network / Réseau national pour les personnes en situation de handicap
Email: info@nationaldisabilitynetwork.ca
About the National Disability Network
The National Disability Network (NDN) is a pan-Canadian coalition of over 40 member organizations committed to advancing inclusion, accessibility, and equity for people with disabilities in Canada. The NDN advocates for systemic change through collaborative policy development, government engagement, and community mobilization. It operates on the principle of “nothing about us, without us,” ensuring that people with disabilities are meaningfully involved in shaping the policies and programs that affect their lives.