Federal budget is ‘silent’ on foreign assistance: aid sector

Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Austria's federal minister for European and international affairs, looks on as Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand speaks in the Foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA — Canada’s aid sector is expressing dismay over the first federal budget in more than 15 years to make no mention of foreign aid, and is calling on Ottawa to outline its vision in an upcoming foreign policy review.

“The budget is largely silent on issues of international development co-operation and humanitarian action,” said Co-operation Canada head Kate Higgins, whose coalition includes most Canadian aid groups operating abroad.

She argued this is the wrong approach “at a time when the stakes around and the world are very high.”

The budget tabled Thursday by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government makes no mention of international assistance, foreign aid or international development.

The Canadian Press reviewed all budgets tabled since 2010 and found references to those terms in each of those documents.

Thursday’s budget mentions Ukraine only in reference to drone production. It mentions aid workers only in passing, in a section on an existing permit program for aid organizations operating in areas under the control of groups Ottawa lists as terrorist entities.

Higgins said the sector assumes Ottawa will stick with its plan announced last year to cut $2.7 billion in foreign aid over four years.

She and other advocates said they were relieved the government did not announce further cuts. She also said Ottawa should acknowledge the important role development funding plays in addressing crises abroad, such as the humanitarian plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“International development co-operation addresses the very challenges that the government is seeking to prioritize around defence, around stability, around diplomacy, around economic partnerships, around trade diversification, around a rules-based order that upholds democracy and human rights,” Higgins said.

She said she hopes Ottawa offers more details of its plans for “international development assistance and humanitarian action” in a foreign policy review expected later this month.

In a news conference Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the foreign policy update will come in “in a matter of weeks” and will include “our approach on development.”

“Rest assured, development assistance is a priority for Global Affairs Canada. It is the reason why we have come forth with humanitarian assistance for Cuba, for Lebanon, for Gaza, for Sudan, among others, this year alone,” she said on Parliament Hill.

The budget’s lack of any mention of foreign aid came just days after the United Nations’ global head of humanitarian issues, Tom Fletcher, praised Canada as a “humanitarian superpower” for the world’s most vulnerable.

“I really hope that Canada continues to hold the line,” he said four days before the budget.

Results Canada, an anti-poverty advocacy group, posted a photo Thursday of a deflated balloon on social media shortly after the budget’s release. The group’s policy director Lindsay Sheridan said her team searched the document in vain for terms relevant to her sector.

“International assistance, foreign aid, vaccines, tuberculosis — just seeing what was in it. And then continuously nothing came up. There was nothing on famines, either. And so, we were just surprised,” she told a video conference with supporters on Thursday.

“We thought that this might be the moment where we would get a little bit more context, a little more understanding of maybe the direction we would be going.”

UNICEF Canada also expressed its disappointment in the budget. It said in a news release Ottawa should at least mention international development when it talks about its response to global threats and volatility.

“International assistance helps children survive and thrive while strengthening the health, education and protection systems on which peaceful, stable societies depend,” the group wrote.

The One Campaign, which advocates for African partnerships, says Ottawa should commit to spending $5.5 billion on development annually in the interest of “safeguarding global health and humanitarian investments that underpin long-term economic stability.”

The group also wrote in a news release that Ottawa should align its “development, trade and investment institutions to support co-ordinated, mutually beneficial partnerships with African countries.”

The House of Commons finance committee had urged Ottawa to use the budget to provide more transparency on where Canada’s aid dollars are going, and to focus funding on the world’s most vulnerable.

Critics have argued the Carney government should outline clearer priorities in aid spending, and spearhead initiatives with peer countries.

Sheridan cited the Harper government’s focus on maternal health and the Trudeau government’s work on providing education to children in conflict zones. Canada led both initiatives with support from G7 peers and global financing institutions.

“It seems like a missed opportunity to make a really well-rounded, robust strategy,” she said. “It seems confusing. Not even a mention.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2026

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press