Budget 2025: Ottawa to slash foreign aid spending to pre-pandemic levels
Global News
The budget talks of "leveraging innovative tools, while focusing support for countries that need it the most" and rejigging existing agreements with specific countries.
The Carney government says it is cutting foreign aid spending to a level in line with Canada’s pre-pandemic aid allocations — without specifying the size of this year’s aid budget.
Tuesday’s budget forecasts $2.7 billion in cuts over four years, which will affect things like global health projects. Ottawa is also withdrawing some support for a world-renowned aid research centre.
“There will be reductions in development funding to global health programming, where Canada’s contribution has grown disproportionately relative to other similar economies,” the budget document says.
It’s not clear where the aid cuts will land. The budget talks of “leveraging innovative tools, while focusing support for countries that need it the most” and rejigging existing agreements with specific countries.
The budget also says that Canada will cut funding “to some international financial institutions” while finding ways that “Canada’s contributions can be leveraged further.”
Canada spent $6 billion on aid in the last reported fiscal year ending in March 2024, along with $2.6 billion for international financial assistance such as loans for Ukraine. Total spending on all aid-related files — including support for refugees in Canada and development grants — came to $12.3 billion in the last reported fiscal year.
Ottawa increased its development and humanitarian spending during the pandemic, in part to restore stalled progress on fighting major illnesses such as AIDS and tuberculosis as governments turned their attention to COVID-19.
Developing countries are still grappling with a debt crisis driven by high interest rates that spiked as wealthier governments spent big during the pandemic. They’re also facing an increase in the number and intensity of natural disasters due to climate change.
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