On Combatting Carney’s WAGE gap

Canadian politicians love to talk about "fiscal responsibility" and "tightening belts" – but only when it comes to programs that help ordinary people. When corporate executives come knocking with their hands out, suddenly the public treasury becomes an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Case in point: While Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) faces up to 81% in budget cuts in the upcoming federal  budget cycles, the same government just rolled out a $5 billion Strategic Response Fund for businesses facing "trade pressures".

That's why I've added my name to Momentum Canada's urgent campaign demanding that Prime Minister Carney show real leadership on 2SLGBTQI+ and women's rights in the upcoming federal budget. 

Given the rapid changes we’re seeing in the political climate, at home and abroad, here is where I’ve landed lately: nonprofits, social services, and grassroots organizations are under threat while corporate interests are awarded with a fraction of the scrutiny. These moves pit organizations and causes against each other under imposed austerity, but for long-term change we need to spend just as much time holding these corporate interests accountable as we do justifying our worth.  

The “abundance for me, austerity for thee” mentality isn’t just theoretical, it is proven over and over again in the budget planning process. The moral arithmetic doesn’t add up:

• As reported by Environmental Defence Canada in 2024, the Government of Canada provided nearly $30 billion in direct subsidies and public financing to the oil and gas industry. 

• The WAGE program is budgeted $407 million this fiscal year with plans to reduce it to $76 million by 2028.  

• In context this means:

• If Canada stopped directly subsidizing oil and gas industries with our tax-payer dollars, they could fund WAGE at its current commitment for 73 years.

• Even if Canada only cut back on oil and gas subsidies by one third, WAGE could be funded for 24 years.

• Say the government subsidized oil and gas to the tune of $29 billion instead of $30 billion, that would still fund WAGE – without cuts! – for over two years.
  
  

The WAGE program provides life saving services like shelters, combatting intimate partner violence, and health care. It also builds cultural and economic opportunities. While the oil and gas industry actively harms communities and destroys our ecosystems. 

As I gaze into my back yard full of diverse wildlife, birds, plants, and clean air I can almost hear the neoliberal cry “But what about jobs?! The economy?!”. First of all, there will be no jobs when the climate crisis wipes us out. Secondly, consider the reality of the job market:

From Imagine Canada:

Collectively nonprofits employ 2.5 million people, making the nonprofit sector the largest employer in Canada. Nonprofit employment is 70% larger than construction, 60% larger than manufacturing and 20% larger than retail trade, the three largest for-profit industries.

And those nonprofits? They keep jobs in Canada, whereas corporations are free to sell their assets to US buyers taking those job opportunities with them. 

Programs like WAGE increase our collective wellbeing, increase job opportunities, and expand our human rights. So I have to ask; why must we spend our time and effort justifying our right to exist while corporate welfare climbs higher and higher?

Adding your voice to Momentum’s campaign is what we need to do today.

Let’s keep talking about what we need to do tomorrow.