Sudanese who fled El Fasher city, after Sudan’s paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people in the western Darfur region, crowd to receive food at their camp in Tawila, Sudan, Nov. 2, 2025.Mohammed Abaker/The Associated Press
The Carney government’s decision to eliminate $2.7-billion in foreign aid spending will deepen a global crisis of aid cuts that has already left millions struggling for survival in war zones and humanitarian disasters, relief agencies say.
The announcement in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s budget breaks his campaign promise to protect Canadian foreign aid, the groups say.
The budget says Ottawa will impose the $2.7-billion cut over the next four years “while focusing support for countries that need it the most.” But this ignores a spiralling worldwide crisis that began this year with deep cuts by the United States, Britain and other Western countries, humanitarian advocates say.
While the budget does not give details of the cuts, it cites Canada’s spending on global health programs as an example, saying this has “grown disproportionately” in comparison to other countries. It says Ottawa is bringing its aid budget back “to a pre-pandemic level” – an argument rejected by aid advocates.
“Any reductions to Canada’s global health investments will have devastating consequences for women and children around the world, while threatening the health, security and prosperity of Canadians,” said Charmaine Crockett, interim chief executive officer of the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health, which represents more than 110 aid groups and other entities, in a statement after the budget.
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During the federal election campaign, Mr. Carney had explicitly denied that he would reduce Canada’s aid budget. “My government will not cut foreign aid,” he said in April. “Our vision is that this is a time for Canada to lead.”
The global wave of cuts began in February when President Donald Trump slashed the U.S. aid budget and dismantled the biggest U.S. aid agency. In the following months, reduced spending was also announced by Britain, Germany and others. In total, G7 countries are trimming their aid budgets by nearly one-third, the steepest reduction since 1960, analysts estimate.
Western aid cuts have inflicted suffering on millions of refugees and malnourished children in the world’s worst humanitarian crises this year, including Sudan and Ethiopia, relief agencies have reported.
“At a time of decreasing global investments in international assistance, Canada had promised not to turn away from the world’s most vulnerable,” a coalition of more than 100 Canadian non-governmental groups said in a statement.
“Instead, this budget further deepens the gap left by other major donors, undermining both global partnerships and Canada’s own strategic interests,” said the coalition, led by Ms. Crockett’s group and another group, Cooperation Canada.
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Mary Bridger, head of policy and advocacy at CARE Canada, said the cuts mark a return to pre-pandemic levels, but her concern is that the needs are greater than what they were before the pandemic.
“Our argument had certainly been that if the prioritization of this government is about security and trade, that’s not separate from international development. These are mutually supporting areas, and it was short-sighted to cut one while wanting to prioritize the others,” Ms. Bridger told The Globe and Mail in an interview.
By weakening health systems in fragile countries worldwide, the Canadian cuts will heighten the risk of another pandemic, while also damaging the chances of building the global stability that would boost Canadian trade, the relief agencies say.
“At a time when other countries are retreating from the world and turning inwards, international assistance is a really important tool in Canada’s foreign policy toolkit,” said Kate Higgins, chief executive officer of Cooperation Canada. While Canada cannot fill the gap left by other Western governments, it should do its fair share, she said.
Sudanese women from community kitchens run by local volunteers distribute meals for people who are affected by conflict and extreme hunger and are out of reach of international aid efforts, in Omdurman, Sudan, July, 2024.MAZIN ALRASHEED/Reuters
Stephen Brown, a University of Ottawa political scientist who studies foreign aid issues, said the budget is phrased confusingly in an attempt to muddle the impact of the cuts, but it appears to mean a reduction of 5 to 6 per cent in Canada’s annual aid spending.
While it is true that Canada increased its aid spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the increase went to Ukraine and the cost of settling refugees in Canada, rather than helping the poorest countries of the Global South, he said.
“At a time when Canada is trying to diversify its trade relations and could use all the friends it can get, including in the Global South, it would actually make sense for the government to increase its aid spending,” he said in an interview.
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Relief agencies globally have been forced to cut food rations and refugee programs after collecting only 21 per cent of their target for helping 181 million of the world’s most vulnerable people this year.
Some of the deepest cuts have hit African countries that are already suffering the most. Sudan, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with 30 million people in need of emergency aid, has seen its aid support fall to the lowest level in a decade. Only 27 per cent of its funding target has been received this year.
Humanitarian support for South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have plunged by two-thirds this year, compared to last year. And in Ethiopia, food rations for 780,000 refugees were sharply reduced in October.
More than three-quarters of the World Food Program’s refugee programs are facing complete stoppages or significant reductions. “These are people in desperate circumstances, and the consequences are immediate,” said WFP emergency director Ross Smith. “Sometimes you stretch resources by cutting rations, but eventually you are forced to cut people off altogether.”