Question Period Notes
About this information
In accordance with the Access to Information Act, the government proactively publishes the package of question period notes that were prepared by a government institution for the minister and that were in use on the last sitting day in June and December.
The question period notes may be partially or fully redacted in accordance with the legislation; for example, if the notes contain information related to national security or personal information. (Learn more about exemptions and exclusions.)
If you find a question period note of interest, you may make an access to information request in order to obtain it.
How do the Old Age Security (OAS) pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) help ensure that the overall income of seniors does not fall below a specified threshold? In 2024–25, $80.2 billion was paid in Old Age Security (OAS) benefits to 7.5 million beneficiaries. This included:
$60.6 billion in OAS pension benefits to 7.4 million recipients;
$18.9 billion in Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) benefits to 2.5 million low-income OAS pensioners; and
$632 million in Allowance benefits to 68,700 near-seniors.
OAS expenditures in 2025 represented 2.78 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
All OAS benefits are adjusted four times per year (in January, April, July and October) in accordance with changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This allows OAS benefits to keep up with the rate of inflation. In addition, the Old Age Security Act contains a guarantee ensuring that benefits can never go down, even in the event of a decline in the CPI.
Comment le gouvernement du Canada aide-t-il les jeunes et les étudiants à obtenir les compétences et l’expérience nécessaires pour intégrer avec succès le marché du travail? Le taux de chômage chez les jeunes s’élevait à 13,8% en mars 2026, soit un taux similaire à mars 2025 et légèrement plus faible que le taux de 14,1% de février 2026.
Le gouvernement du Canada s'engage à aider les jeunes à acquérir des compétences, à obtenir un emploi dans une carrière intéressante et à donner aux jeunes Canadiens les moyens de développer des compétences professionnelles grâce à une expérience pratique et à de la formation.
Le budget 2025 a investi dans une main-d’œuvre solide et flexible en soutenant environ 175 000 jeunes et étudiants cette année, grâce à un financement additionnel de 1,5 milliard de dollars à compter de 2026-2027, comme suit :
594,7 millions de dollars sur deux ans pour Emplois d’été Canada afin de soutenir environ 100 000 emplois à l’été 2026 ;
307,9 millions de dollars sur deux ans pour soutenir 20 000 jeunes par année dans le cadre des programmes de la Stratégie emploi et compétences jeunesse, en fournissant des services d’emploi, de la formation et des mesures de soutien globales, en particulier aux personnes qui font face à des obstacles à l’emploi ;
635,2 millions de dollars sur trois ans pour le Programme de stages pratiques pour étudiants afin de soutenir environ 55 000 possibilités d’apprentissage intégré au travail en 2026-2027.
Le budget 2025 a également investi dans la formation en compétences vertes afin de former la main-d’œuvre nécessaire pour bâtir une économie compétitive sur le plan climatique. 40 millions de dollars sur deux ans sont destinés à créer un nouveau service jeunesse pour le climat afin de former les jeunes en vue de répondre rapidement aux urgences climatiques, d’appuyer les mesures de rétablissement et d’accroître la résilience des communautés partout au Canada.
La mise à jour économique du printemps de 2026 propose d’investir 2,0 milliards de dollars sur cinq ans, à compter de 2026-2027, et 262 millions de dollars par année par la suite, afin d’augmenter le nombre de jeunes prêts à poursuivre une carrière dans les métiers spécialisés.
Dans le cadre de cet investissement, le programme Une Équipe Canada forte offrira aux jeunes de 15 à 30 ans des stages rémunérés, de niveau débutant, dans les métiers spécialisés et dans la construction, qui les mèneront à se diriger vers la formation en apprentissage.
Les stages dureront jusqu’à quatre mois et permettront aux jeunes de gagner un revenu, d’acquérir de l’expérience pratique et de contribuer immédiatement à de grands projets nationaux prioritaires en matière de logement, d’infrastructures et de défense.
How the Government of Canada is supporting youth to gain skills and experience through Canada Summer Jobs . Youth unemployment was 13.8% in March 2026. This is similar to March 2025, and slightly lower than the February 2026 rate of 14.1%.
The Government of Canada understands that youth are facing challenges in the labour market and is focused on supporting youth to build skills and gain work experience through programs like Canada Summer Jobs.
Budget 2025 announced an increased investment of $594.7 million over two years for Canada Summer Jobs to support the creation of 100,000 summer jobs in 2026.
These investments will provide young people in Canada with paid work experience over the summer months to help them improve their skills and help with affordability challenges.
Recent studies have found that youth who participate in Canada Summer Jobs benefit from better long-term earnings than non-participants.
PUBLICATION DES DONNÉES DE L’ENQUÊTE CANADIENNE SUR LE REVENU DE 2024. Taux de pauvreté global et revenus
Les résultats de l’ECR de 2024 montrent que le taux de pauvreté global au Canada, selon le seuil officiel de la pauvreté au Canada (la mesure du panier de consommation ou MPC), s’élevait à 11,0 % en 2024, comparativement à 11,1 % en 2023 (estimation recalculée à l’aide des données du recensement de 2021). Environ 4,5 millions de personnes vivaient dans la pauvreté en 2024. Un nombre approximatif de 88 000 Canadiens supplémentaires vivaient dans la pauvreté en 2024 par rapport à 2023.
L’indice de pauvreté selon la MPC a permis de calculer un taux de pauvreté global au Canada inférieur de 26 % en 2024 par rapport au niveau observé en 2015, qui est l’année de référence pour les cibles canadiennes de réduction de la pauvreté prévues par la loi.
Le revenu médian des ménages et des personnes seules est demeuré stable de 2023 à 2024, pour atteindre 69 800 dollars en 2024 (en dollars constants de 2024).
Le montant médian des paiements de transfert versés aux familles et aux personnes seules en 2024 était estimé à 10 300 dollars, soit le même montant qu’en 2023. Le revenu médian après impôts des familles et des personnes seules a légèrement augmenté, passant de 75 100 dollars en 2023 à 75 500 dollars en 2024 (soit une hausse de 0,5 %).
Taux de pauvreté chez des groupes de population précis
Le taux de pauvreté chez les enfants s’élevait à 11,5 % en 2024, comparativement à 12,1 % en 2023.
Environ 23 000 enfants de moins vivaient dans la pauvreté en 2024 par rapport à 2023.
En 2024, la pauvreté chez les enfants au Canada était inférieure de 32 % au niveau observé en 2015.
Le taux de pauvreté chez les personnes âgées était de 5,4 % en 2024, comparativement à 5,9 % en 2023.
Il y avait environ 23 000 aînés de moins qui vivaient dans la pauvreté en 2024 qu’en 2023.
En 2024, le taux de pauvreté chez les aînés au Canada était inférieur de 27 % au taux observé en 2015.
Des statistiques supplémentaires sur les taux de pauvreté des groupes racisés et d’autres groupes de population ainsi que les taux de pauvreté provinciaux et territoriaux sont disponibles dans la section « Contexte » ci-dessous. Insécurité alimentaire
En 2024, 24 % de la population canadienne (soit environ 9,8 millions de personnes) ont connu l’insécurité alimentaire, un chiffre inférieur à l’estimation de 25,7 % pour 2023. La baisse de l’insécurité alimentaire de 2023 à 2024 a été observée chez la plupart des types de familles et des groupes démographiques.
Les taux d’insécurité alimentaire, classés par niveau de gravité, étaient les suivants :
2022
2023
2024
Situation d’insécurité alimentaire marginale
6,0 %
6,3 %
5,6 %
Situation d’insécurité alimentaire modérée
11,0 %
12,5 %
11,9 %
Situation d’insécurité alimentaire grave
6,1 %
6,9 %
6,5 %
En 2024, l’insécurité alimentaire était plus élevée chez les personnes vivant dans des familles monoparentales (44,4 %) et chez les personnes non âgées seules (30,4 %).
Les estimations indiquent que 28,3 % de l’ensemble de la population des territoires a connu l’insécurité alimentaire en 2024, ce qui est inférieur à l’estimation de 37,1 % pour 2023. Les taux d’insécurité alimentaire variaient d’un territoire à l’autre, le Nunavut (56,4 %) ayant le taux le plus élevé, suivi des Territoires du Nord-Ouest (16,4 %) et du Yukon (15,5 %).
Estimations de la pauvreté pour 2025
Les statistiques sur la pauvreté pour 2025 seront publiées au printemps.
How does the New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP) community-based stream support Canadian seniors and their communities? Evidence of the need to combat social isolation has never been stronger. Studies have shown the health risks from social isolation are comparable to smoking daily, excessive drinking and obesity. The National Institute on Ageing (NIA) declared social isolation and loneliness among older Canadians an epidemic in 2023. An NIA survey conducted in 2025 showed that 43% of Canadians aged 50+ are at risk of social isolation.
Founded in 2016, the NIA is an organization based at Toronto Metropolitan University that focuses on issues related to aging.
Since 2004, the New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP) has funded over 45,000 local community-based projects and broader-reaching pan-Canadian projects in hundreds of communities across Canada, with the Government’s total investment now surpassing $1 billion in funding.
This year, the Government is investing over $54 million for more than 2,600 community-based projects that support seniors in more than 400 communities across Canada.
More than 900,000 seniors participate in NHSP community-based projects each year with 91 percent of projects reporting making a difference in seniors lives through a reduction in social isolation.
What is the status of Old Age Security service delivery results and Benefits Delivery Modernization? The Benefits Delivery Modernization (BDM) Programme is the largest digital transformation initiative ever undertaken by the Government of Canada. Through a phased approach with an expected completion date of 2030-31, the Programme is modernizing how the federal government delivers Old Age Security (OAS), Employment Insurance (EI) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits, by replacing old systems with technology fit for the digital age.
OAS is one of the Government’s largest programs, currently providing 7.7 million seniors with pension benefits every month. In 2024-25, seniors received more than $80.2 billion in benefit payments.
In 2025-26, as of February 2026, 75.2% of OAS benefits were paid in the client’s first month of entitlement, as compared to 87.3% for the same period in 2024-25 (target is 90%).
In 2025-26, as of the week ending March 31, 2026, the Pensions Call Centre answered 3.04 million calls with an average wait time of 18 minutes.
The first OAS on BDM release on the new, more modern platform (Cúram) occurred on June 12, 2023, when 600,000 OAS Foreign Benefits clients were migrated to the modern system.
On March 17, 2025, all remaining 7.4 million OAS clients were migrated to the new benefits delivery system. Since then, the new Cúram system is operating correctly.
In 2025-26, 7.7 million OAS clients received $86.2 billion in benefit payments.
Update on the National School Food Program . Canada had approximately 6.6 million school-aged children (ages 4-18) in 2024 according to Statistics Canada population estimates.
According to the 2023 Canadian Income Survey (released on May 1, 2025):
802,000 children (persons under 18) were living below the poverty line.
The poverty rate for children and youth (persons under 18) increased by 4.3 percentage points to 10.7% in 2023, up from 6.4% in 2021.
Food insecurity among children and youth in Canada’s provinces increased to 32.9% in 2023, up from 28.4% in 2022, with 24.7% of children experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity.
Families with children were more likely to experience food insecurity. Specifically, 52.1% of people living in female lone-parent families and 28.6% of people living in couple families with children experienced food insecurity, representing an increase of 6.1 and 3.9 percentage points from 2022, respectively.
For the provinces, rates of food insecurity among children and youth are lowest in Quebec (27.5%) and highest in Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick, at 39.9%. While data on children experiencing food insecurity in the territories are not available, rates of food insecurity, in general, in the territories are high, with 37.4% of people living in a household that experienced food insecurity. Food insecurity rates varied by territory, with Nunavut (58.1%) having the highest rate, followed by the Northwest Territories (34.2%) and then Yukon (21.8%).
School food programs can provide numerous benefits, with research from peer countries suggesting that every dollar invested in school food yields an estimated $2 to $6 in social returns.
Studies show that children and youth who participate in robust school food programs go on to earn 3-5% more than those who did not.
School food programs can also have long-lasting impacts on children’s educational attainment, nutrition, and overall well-being.
Prior to federal investment, school food programs funded by provincial and territorial governments had reached at least one in four school-aged children during the 2023-24 school year.
Provinces and territories continue to make investments in school food programming, with total funding estimated at almost $400 million for the 2025-26 school year. However, persistent affordability pressures have meant that the demand for school food programming continues to grow.
Announced in Budget 2024 and launched in 2024-25 with an investment of $1 billion over five years, the National School Food Program supports provinces, territories and Indigenous partners to enhance and expand access to school food programs across the country, guided by the National School Food Policy which sets out a long-term vision for school food programming in Canada. The National School Food Program aims to provide meals to up to 400,000 kids every year.
Each province and territory is responsible for maintaining commitments made through their National School Food Program bilateral agreement with the Government of Canada, including to report annually on implementation progress, results and expenditures. Given that the Program is in early implementation, with 2024-25 being the first year, final reporting from provinces and territories is not yet complete.
Budget 2025 proposed to introduce legislation and provide $216.6 million per year, starting in 2029-30, to make the National School Food Program permanent. The National School Food Program Act, tabled as part of the Budget 2025 Implementation Act No.1, reinforces the Government of Canada’s commitment to maintain sustained, long-term federal funding for the Program, helping to ensure improved access to nutritious food, while also meeting the essential needs of families and supporting their well-being. The Act was enshrined in law on March 26, 2026.
On April 8, 2026, a new school-food focused research funding opportunity was announced: the Funding Research Evidence in School Food (FRESH) Team Grant
A total of $12.6 million is available over three years to support school food research through FRESH. This includes: $9 million from Employment and Social Development Canada; $2.7 million from the Public Health Agency of Canada; and $900,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Funding will support up to 14 grants.
Applicants must register to apply by June 25, 2026, and will have until October 7, 2026, to submit their applications. The funding start date is January 2027.
The Government of Canada recently announced an extension to the temporary increases to Canada Student Grants and Canada Student Loans for the 2026-27 academic year. Maintaining the 40% increase to grants for full-time students, part-time students, students with disabilities and students with dependants, and the Canada Student Loan limit increase from $210 to $300 per week of study, will continue to help make post-secondary education affordable for students. The Government of Canada is committed to reducing financial barriers to support students’ access to post-secondary education.
The Government is investing an additional $1.2 billion in 2026-2027 to maintain the temporary increase to Canada Student Grants by 40 percent above baseline 2019 levels, and to maintain the temporary increase in the weekly Canada Student Loan limit from $210 to $300.
This measure is expected to help 720,000 students access and afford post-secondary education.
In 2024-2025, approximately:
617,000 students benefited from $2.7 billion in non-repayable Canada Student Grants.
710,000 students received $5.6 billion in interest-free Canada Student Loans.
298,000 student loan borrowers received support under the Repayment Assistance Plan, aimed at those who experience difficulty in repaying their student loans.
Existing workforce development approaches to meet in-demand occupations are fragmented, not well coordinated with Provinces and Territories and lack collaboration mechanisms that support alignment. While existing initiatives and networks are producing positive outcomes; there is a need for greater cohesion and more strategic workforce development, particularly in the current geopolitical and economic context, and to achieve the government’s national economic missions.Global economic instability and shifting trade relationships are placing significant pressure on some of Canada’s largest sectors, creating additional and evolving challenges for Canada’s workforce. Tariffs are impacting export-dependent industries and their supply chains, leading to job losses.
By January 2026, there were about three unemployed people for every one job vacancy in Canada. Compared with a year earlier, most provinces and industries saw fewer openings and more people looking for work, indicating a looser labour market amid economic uncertainty and a mismatch between the skills needed by employers and the skills offered by job seekers.
Each sector of our economy is unique and faces challenges that vary based on each sector’s distinct labour market realities. As a result, sectors are grappling with a range of labour market pressures, including:
Demographic shifts – Construction sector’s workforce is older than the national average which means a significant retirement wave. By 2034, almost 269,000 workers, or 21% of the 2024 labour force, are projected to retire.
Geopolitical and trade dynamics –With the introduction of tariffs, manufacturers paused expansions, and 28% of surveyed businesses began implementing hiring freezes.
Significant labour shortages – in the Transportation sector for example, the projected shortages by 2035 will be anywhere between 70,000 to 130,000; predominantly in aviation, followed by trucking.
Furthermore, in their report released in Summer 2025, Members of the Union-Led Advisory Table highlighted the lack of a consistent, collaborative forum in which to identify and respond to the needs of workers in industries, sectors, and occupations undergoing transition, resulting in a deep institutional deficit. To fix this, they recommended to re-establish Sectoral Partnership Councils for a modern transitioning economy.
To respond to both profound workforce challenges and to help improve collaboration across sectors in tackling these, Workforce Alliances and a Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund were announced.
The Minister of Jobs and Families launched the Tripartite Advisory Council on March 12, 2026. The council has a mandate to serve as a consultative body comprised of employer and employee representatives that provides advice to the Minister and the Secretary of State (Labour), on emerging labour issues.The Tripartite Advisory Council is composed of three members of labour organizations and three members of employer associations in the federal jurisdiction. Members are not remunerated.
Members of the Tripartite Advisory Council include:
Bea Bruske, President, Canadian Labour Congress
Lana Payne, National President, Unifor
Magali Picard, President, Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec
Derrick Hynes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federally Regulated Employers - Transportation and Communications
Goldy Hyder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business Council of Canada
Michelle LLambías Meunier, President and Chief Executive Officer, Conseil du patronat du Quebec
The Tripartite Advisory Council is presided by the interim Chair, Rob Wright, Deputy Minister of Labour and Associate Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development.