The Liberal government will begin rolling out a long-awaited automatic tax filing system for low- income Canadians and make the national school food program permanent in advance of a federal budget that the prime minister is promising will lay the groundwork to support the country’s most vulnerable citizens.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the measures at a news conference Friday in his home riding of Nepean, Ont., where he also promised to extend the Canada Strong Pass over the holiday season and the summer of 2026.
“In the budget, we will have to make responsible and pragmatic choices, and, yes, difficult decisions,” Carney said.
“We will take pragmatic decisions so we can protect programs and initiatives that support the most vulnerable in our society.… We will build programs that help you get ahead.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking in Ottawa on Friday, announced three new measures that will be included in the federal budget to be tabled next month including permanent school food programs, automatic federal benefits, and a renewal of the Canada Strong pass.
Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government first announced an automatic tax filing system in the 2020 throne speech, before formally committing to implement the program in the 2023 budget.
By law, people who owe taxes are required to file a return each year with the CRA, but many low-income Canadians — notably those on government assistance — don’t expect to owe the federal government anything, so they seldom file.
Carney said that Canadians who fail to file a return when they earn under the basic personal amount means Canadians “who most need benefits often don’t get them.”
Those benefits include the GST/HST tax credit, the Canada child benefit, the Canada workers benefit, the Canadian disability benefit and the disability tax credit.
Carney said a single parent with two young children, earning $15,000 from a part-time job could be eligible for up to $25,000 in federal and provincial benefits.
A permanent national school food program
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said the automatic benefits filing system will begin enrolling about a million people with “simple tax situations” starting in 2027, rising to 2.5 million in 2028 before hitting up to 5.5 million low-income Canadians by 2029.
In the spring of 2024, the Liberal government announced it would provide $1 billion over five years to fund a national school food program that would deliver meals to 400,000 more children a year.
Carney said Friday that since the program launched, it has provided meals to 400,000 children annually, saving parents with two children about $800 a year.
“This is Canada. No child should go to school hungry or sit in a classroom all day wondering where their next meal will come from,” he said. “All our children should be focused on learning.”
The prime minister said his government will “move forward with the funding and legislation” to make the national school food program permanent.
“Canada’s new government will keep working with provinces, territories and Indigenous partners to expand school food programs across Canada, so even more kids can benefit,” he said.
A press release from the PMO said that starting in 2029-30 the program will receive permanent annual funding of $216.6 million annually.
Carney also announced that the Canada Strong Pass will be extended from Dec. 12 to Jan. 15 to cover the forthcoming holiday season and then again for the summer of 2026.
The pass was created for summer of 2025 to promote domestic tourism that makes Canada’s historic sites and parks free to visit and rail travel less expensive for young people. The pass expired on Sept. 2.
The pass provides free admission for all visitors to national historic sites, national parks and national marine conservation areas administered by Parks Canada and a 25 per cent discount on camping fees.
The pass also gives children aged 17 and under free admission to national museums and the Plains of Abraham Museum — adults aged 18 to 24 get a 50 per cent discount. The pass also gives children free admission to select provincial and territorial museums and galleries, with the same 50 per cent discount for those aged 18 to 24.
Children aged 17 and under can also travel for free on Via Rail when accompanied by an adult. Young adults aged 18 to 24 get a 25 per cent discount on tickets.
The PMO said the pass boosted VIA rail ridership by 13 per cent over this past summer summer and that visitors to parks, museums and historic sites were up around 15 per cent on average.
