For Immediate Release

November 7, 2025

Autism Alliance of Canada notes Federal Budget 2025 directs major investments toward infrastructure, defence, and housing. While investments in physical capital are needed, the budget provides little attention to human capital—the people who make Canada’s communities strong.

This approach overlooks Canada’s most critical infrastructure: individuals and families, including Autistic people, caregivers, and people with disabilities. Care continues to be treated as a cost to manage rather than an economic driver that enables workforce participation, strengthens communities, and sustains growth.

People, Not Just Projects

As a founding member of the National Disability Network, we believe Canada cannot achieve its full economic potential while 27% of the population – people with disabilities and their caregivers remain undervalued and excluded.

We are deeply concerned that Budget 2025 does not include dedicated funding for Canada’s Autism Strategy, launched in September 2024. Without investment, the Strategy’s ambition for a coordinated, national approach to equity and inclusion for Autistic people and their families remains at serious risk. 

Our key recommendation for $5 million annually over four years to support implementation was not included. This absence leaves the Strategy without resources needed to move from commitment to action. This omission also reflects a broader lack of investment in areas essential to the well-being and economic participation of Autistic people and their caregivers, including access to timely diagnosis, financial security, and accessible housing.

Key Missed Investments:

1. Access to Diagnosis and Services: Our proposed $15 million over three years to train community care providers in autism diagnosis was not included. Wait times remain at crisis levels. Although the Budget invests $5 billion in a Health Infrastructure Fund, no dedicated funds are earmarked for autism diagnosis or support and services across the lifespan. 
2. Financial Security for Disabled Workers and Caregivers: Budget 2025 does not increase the disability supplement of the Canada Workers Benefit or make the Canada Caregiver Credit refundable, leaving out low-income caregivers who gain little from non-refundable tax credits.
3. Accessible Housing: While focused on housing supply, the Budget fails to expand accessible and affordable housing for people with developmental disabilities. It also proposes changes to the Home Accessibility Tax Credit that restrict, rather than expand, eligible expenses for people with sensory or developmental needs.

Acknowledging Positive Steps: We welcome the proposal to exempt the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) from being treated as income. This important recommendation has been long championed by the National Disability Network. However, incremental progress cannot match the scale of the challenges faced by more than one million Autistic people in Canada.

Next Steps

While Budget 2025 did include plans to reduce administrative barriers through automatic tax filing( for some people), this progress could be extended to modernize the Disability Tax Credit (DTC). The government’s own platform committed to a full review of the DTC, and the Budget references this work.

Autism Alliance of Canada has actionable, evidence-informed recommendations ready to support that reform. These align with the government’s stated goal of reaching those who need it most while improving efficiency.

Click here to find out more:

Share this with your MP using our Toolkit on Budget 2025 and the Disability Tax Credit.

We encourage you to copy us on the letter at membership@autismalliance.ca . Should your outreach secure a meeting or discussion with your MP, we can equip you with the information you might need to prepare and we would be happy to support you in the meeting if scheduling permits.

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Media Contact:

Allison Garber: allison@allisongarber.ca 

Sabirah Samaroo: communications@autismalliance.ca