EDMONTON — Today federal finance minister François-Philippe Champagne tabled Prime Minister Mark Carney’s second federal budget titled, “Masters of our Destiny.” Today’s budget overwhelmingly focused on the economy and nation-building. Yet on health care—a key and stable economic driver—we once again saw investment fall to the sidelines.
“If we truly want to protect our sovereignty and be masters of our own destiny we need our governments to treat our public health care as the nation-building project that it is,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “Unfortunately, today’s federal budget fails to recognize that our universal health care is actually our economic advantage, knowing that every dollar spent on it returns an even greater boost to our economy.”
Health Care Funding
For months, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions and others have warned that plans to reduce health care transfers and upcoming federal funding agreement cliffs could see health funding to provinces drop by billions of dollars. Last month, the federal government announced some good news: extended federal funding agreements for mental health, addictions and home care by another year. Today’s budget included a Canadian Health Transfer growth guarantee of at least 5% until 2027-28, but does not commit to maintaining that level moving forward.
“Canadian Medicare has always been a federal-provincial project, and the federal government is a key funder to ensure equitable health care services across the country. Unfortunately, today’s budget continues to leave us concerned about the lack of certainty regarding long-term health care funding for the provinces in the years ahead," said Gallaway.
Mental Health and Addictions
In addition to earlier commitments to extended mental health and addictions funding, today's budget included $2 billion over two years to build mental health and addictions facilities, as part of a larger plan to end homelessness in Canada. However this comes while the Alberta government is overwhelmingly focused on expanding under-regulated private and for-profit addictions services at expense of public facilities, and dangerous, anti-evidence programs like forced treatment.
"Mental health and addictions care are health care. Yet they remain excluded from our Medicare umbrella and therefore inaccessible to far too many," said Gallaway. "Federal investment in mental health and addictions care and supportive programs are welcome, but must come with stipulations to ensure that services are evidence-based and in the public's best interest, rather than the interests of those seeking to profit off of Albertans' unmet care needs."
Pharmacare
In September 2025, when asked by media about the stalled national Pharmacare plan while visiting in Edmonton, Prime Minister Carney told Albertans that new bilateral agreements with the remaining provinces and territories would be finalized “as quickly and equitably as possible.” But in the 14 months since, the federal government has refused to negotiate any new bilateral agreements, while the recommendations of the government’s own National Pharmacare Committee of Experts continue to go unimplemented. Today’s budget continues this trend, with no mention of national Pharmacare.
“Albertans overwhelmingly support universal Pharmacare, and they have repeatedly made their voices heard on the issue. Yet we still lack the same access to free national coverage for contraceptives and diabetes medications that folks living in Manitoba, British Columbia, the Yukon and PEI enjoy,” said Gallaway. “It’s completely unfair that we do not have access to this life saving national program just because we live in Alberta, and it is unacceptable that the funding for the expansion of bilateral Pharmacare agreements for the remaining provinces and territories continues to be neglected in this year’s federal budget.”
Dental Care
As recently as last week, Premier Danielle Smith has continued to try to opt Albertans out of the Canadian Dental Care Plan, in spite of Alberta’s recent referendum results rebuking the idea of an opt out for Alberta when it comes to federal social programs. Today’s federal budget maintains existing funding for 2026-2027, but extended projections raise concerns about long-term support for the CDCP.
“We are glad to see the Canadian Dental Care Plan remains a part of the federal government’s social spending plan in today’s budget, but we need commitment to ensure Canadians can rely on this plan in the years to come. The CDCP has been life changing for hundreds of thousands of Albertans who rely on it for access to dental care,” said Gallaway. “But we continue to call on the federal minister to ease the concerns of Albertans who are worried about losing this coverage by publicly saying absolutely not to any sort of opt-out by Alberta from the Canadian Dental Care Plan, or other needed federal programs."
Enforcing the Canada Health Act
With accelerating efforts to establish two-tier, American-style health care in Alberta by the provincial government, Albertans are looking for overdue Federal leadership to protect patients and our public health care systems.
“Continued federal investments in public health care are crucial to having a strong single-payer universal health care system right across the country. But any federal funding needs to come with strings attached,” said Gallaway. “Those strings are laid out in the Canada Health Act, which Alberta is violating by implementing Bill 11. It’s been almost a year since this legislation was brought forward in Alberta, and it is well past time for our federal health minister to do her job and say publicly that this will not be allowed and that she will act to enforce the Canada Health Act if Alberta proceeds.”
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