April 8, 2022 – Yesterday, Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland unveiled the Liberal Government’s 2022 federal budget: A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable. BGC Canada is pleased to see investments in support for mental health, affordable dental care, and the creation of an Early Learning and Child Care infrastructure fund to support the building of new child care facilities—but we know more needs to be done to support the nonprofit sector and our contribution to Canada’s social safety net.

In our pre-budget submission, BGC Canada called for investments to support the recovery of our Clubs and other community service organizations as they continue to be impacted by COVID-19. These priorities included a recognition of the importance of after-school programming, support for BGC Clubs through expanding the Community Services Recovery Fund, and increased investments for youth mental health. Employee burnout, staffing shortages, and a decline in revenues continue to impact almost half of charities in Canada.

“The 2022 federal budget has made steps in the right direction, but more needs to be done to support care workers,” says Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada. “Young people and their families continue to face impacts from COVID-19 and there is a long road ahead. While we have seen support for early learning and child care, additional financial investments for workers and community service charities is needed as we continue to provide essential supports to communities across the country.”

BGC Canada applauds many of the investments found in Budget 2022 including:

• Mental Health Supports: $1.2 billion to provinces and territories to increase health care capacity and support people experiencing mental health challenges.
• Early Learning and Child Care: $625 million over four years, beginning in 2023-24, for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund to assist in the building of new facilities focused on nonprofit and public early learning and child care providers.
• Affordable Dental Care: $5.3 billion to provide dental care for low-income families, with those under 12 guaranteed care by the end of 2022.
• Addressing Racism: $85 million over four years to finalize a new Anti-Racism Strategy and National Action Plan on Combatting Hate.
• Support for 2S & LGBTQIA+ Priorities: $100 million over five years to support the implementation of a National LGBTQ2 Action Plan.
• Tackling Substance Use: $100 million over three years, to support harm reduction, treatment, and prevention at the community level.

About BGC Canada
For 120+ years, BGC Canada has been creating opportunities for millions of Canadian kids and teens. As Canada’s largest child and youth serving charitable organization, our Clubs open their doors to young people and their families at 775 locations nationwide. During out-of-school hours in small and large cities, and rural and Indigenous communities, our trained staff and volunteers provide programs and services that help young people realize positive outcomes in self-expression, academics, healthy living, physical activity, job readiness, mental health, leadership, and more. Opportunity changes everything.

March 24, 2022 – Earlier this week, the Quebec Provincial Government released their Budget for 2022-2023. BGC Canada applauds the significant budget investments in support of community organizations. Funding will allow community organizations to better support children, youth and their families.

The budget, released by Quebec Minister of Finance Eric Girard, provides additional investments totalling more than $22B over the next five years including:

• Strengthening Community Action: $888.1M to enhance and expand support for the overall mission of community organizations including help to cover the cost of the organizations’ operations, such as salaries, capital expenditures and telecommunications costs (an increase of almost 30%).
  • $834.2M to increase funding for existing organizations;
  • $53.9M to fund new organizations.
  • $65M to increase funding for youth employment centres
• Supporting Communities: $1.1B to enhance support for various communities, including:
  • $108.9M to improve assistance and services for families and youth.
  • $285M to continue support for Indigenous communities
  • $9.8M to support English-speaking communities, in particular by enhancing current programs and supporting new community organizations.
• Supporting Young People: $34.4M over five years, which includes:
  • $5M to support improvements for youth infrastructure, such as youth centres
• Improving Assistance and Services for Families and Youth: $255.8M in 2022-2023 to:
  • $168.7M to provide support to families with special needs and improve services.
  • $34.4M to support young people.
  • $52.7 million to improve the quality of the educational childcare services network. This includes funds to renew certain measures of the strategy for children aged 0 to 8 aimed at promoting the development of children in the educational childcare services network
• Improving Services for Vulnerable Persons: $508.5M to enhance local services for youth in need and strengthening mental health initiatives, based on the recommendations from the report from the Special Commission on the Rights of the Child and Youth Protection
• Investing in Education: $2.8B to improve access to and graduation from higher education
  • $75 million by 2026-2027 to support the integration of trainees into the health and social services sector, including those in mental health and youth protection.
• Coping with the rising cost of living: $3.2B to provide a one-time cost of living support payment ($500) to adults with an income less than $100k.