Prime Minister Carney Announces New Measures to Lower Costs for Canadians and Help You Get Ahead

Prime Minister Carney Announces New Measures to Lower Costs for Canadians and Help You Get Ahead

October 10, 2025

• Starting automatic federal benefits for the 2026 tax year that will reach up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians by the 2028 tax year. The CRA will automatically file these individuals’ taxes to ensure they receive government benefits they qualify for, such as the GST/HST credit, the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Disability Benefit, and more – including benefits that these Canadians may not be aware they are entitled to.
• Making the National School Food Program permanent to provide meals for up to 400,000 children. This program ensures kids are fed healthy meals at school and saves families with two children $800 per year on groceries. By making it permanent, we will work with provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners to expand the program into more schools across Canada.
• Renewing the Canada Strong Pass for the holidays and for summer 2026 so children and young families can discover Canada with lower costs. It will be renewed from December 12, 2025, to January 15, 2026, and then again for summer 2026. This also helps students travelling home for the holidays with a 25% discount on VIA Rail for young adults aged 18 to 24. With the Canada Strong Pass, Canadians can visit national, provincial, and territorial museums, historic sites, parks, and travel by rail for free or at a reduced cost.

These measures build on measures already taken – including cancelling the divisive consumer carbon tax, cutting taxes for 22 million middle-class Canadians, and eliminating GST for first-time homebuyers. Canada’s new government will remain relentlessly focused on empowering Canadians with lower costs and new opportunities to help you get ahead.

Quick facts

• The Government of Canada’s Budget 2025 will be tabled in the House of Commons by the Minister of Finance and National Revenue, François-Philippe Champagne, on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
• Last summer, the Canada Strong Pass led to increased visits across national, provincial, and territorial museums, historic sites, and parks, as well as increased rail travel. This included an average 15% increase in attendance across all participating national museums, compared to 2024, and more than 50,000 rail travel Canada Strong Pass bookings.
• The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will prepare a pre-filled tax return in My Account for about 1 million individuals with simple tax situations starting in 2027, scaling to 2.5 million individuals in 2028 and approximately 5.5 million by 2029.
• Announced in Budget 2024 with an investment of $1 billion over five years, the National School Food Program (NSFP) aims to provide meals to 400,000 more kids every year, in collaboration with provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners. With today’s announcement, the program will receive permanent funding of $216.6 million per year, starting in 2029-30.
• As of March 2025, the Government of Canada has signed bilateral agreements with all provinces and territories on the NSFP. Many provinces and territories are already using funding provided through these agreements to support children across Canada this school year.

Additional Resources

• Canada’s National School Food Program
• Canada Strong Pass