General

The federal budget has been tabled, and the Liberals are hard at work getting the votes to pass it this week. The budget includes important investments in health infrastructure, affordability, and youth employment. However, for children, most of the announced funding measures are too downstream to make a difference for them.  

Ottawa, October 1, 2025 — Chronic underfunding and under-resourcing of children’s healthcare in Canada yield significant and measurable costs for children and youth, their families and indeed, Canada.  A new report commissioned by Children’s Healthcare Canada and Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations and conducted by Deloitte, the first national economic analysis of the return on investment in children’s healthcare in Canada, finds that the nation’s pediatric health systems are stretched thin, yet every dollar invested in children’s healthcare generates up to a nearly five-fold return.