The United Church of Canada urges a federal budget that reflects justice, equity, and love

Credit: Saffron Blaze/Wikimedia

~ from a statement published on November 4, 2025 on The United Church of Canada’s website

Bold Investment Needed to Advance Equity,
Human Rights, and Climate Justice

God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

As the Government of Canada prepares to release the 2025 federal budget today, The United Church of Canada urges that public spending reflects our collective moral responsibility to nurture a just, equitable, and sustainable society.

Rooted in our faith commitment to stewardship of creation and to love of neighbour—near and far—we call on the federal government to invest boldly in measures that advance equity, uphold human rights, and protect the planet, and to abandon its plans to significantly increase military spending.

Our priorities for the 2025 federal budget include:

• Advancing racial equity: Invest in adequate housing to ensure racial equity for Indigenous and racialized peoples, including community-led initiatives and collection of race-based data, invest in anti-racism programs and policies, and national or provincial anti-racism action plans address environmental racism, and ensure immigration and refugee policies are fair, compassionate, and grounded in anti-oppression principles.
• Respecting reconciliation and Indigenous rights: Allocate resources to fully implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the recommendations from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, UNDRIP, and the report of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves, to uphold Jordan’s Principle and to combat anti-Indigenous racism.
• Acting for climate justice: Increase Canada’s greenhouse gas reduction targets to at least 60 percent, fund targeted adaptation and mitigation measures for communities most affected by climate change, and recognize Indigenous sovereignty and leadership in climate solutions. A just transition requires a national Guaranteed Liveable Income framework.
• Protecting Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ rights: Provide increased international assistance for 2S and LGBTQIA+ organizations, appoint a Special Envoy for 2S and LGBTQIA+ human rights, and ensure pathways to safety for those fleeing persecution.
• Standing for global solidarity and peace: Cancel debt, restore and increase Canada’s international assistance, champion human rights and international law, fund peace, not militarization, and take decisive steps toward a global just peace, including in the Philippines, Palestine, and Israel. Canada must abandon plans to dramatically increase our military budget.
• Defend public healthcare: Invest in pharmacare, stop privatization, invest in safe, not-for-profit long-term care facilities, and provide universal access across the country by addressing gaps, including for lower-income people, racialized people, and those with precarious immigration status.

Budgets reveal our priorities and values as a society. At a time of deepening global inequality and instability, as well as ecological crisis, Canada’s federal budget should not prioritize increased military spending; rather, it should demonstrate courage, compassion, and commitment to human dignity and respect for the planet.

The United Church of Canada represents more than 1,900 congregations and communities of faith across the country calling on the Government of Canada to foster a society where all people and the Earth can flourish.