The provincial government has released Budget 2025: Standing Strong for BC which is a measured plan to protect jobs and public services people rely on, while preparing BC to withstand the unpredictable impacts of unjustified tariffs imposed by the USA. We believe that it’s crucial to continue investing in families. Programs that support health care, childcare, education, and affordable housing help people stay afloat during tough times and create long-term benefits for the economy. Cutting back on these investments now could make things harder for families and slow down economic recovery.

Overall, foster families will benefit from increased funding for child welfare services, higher wages for frontline workers to improve support, and expanded financial assistance for kinship and alternative care arrangements. Additional investments in respite care, disability supports, and mental health services will help foster parents provide stable, nurturing environments for children/youth in care. Cost-of-living relief, including rental supplements and ICBC rebates, will also help ease financial pressures on foster families.

We invite you to read our recap below and share your thoughts with us by taking this survey.

Let’s dive into the key provincial budget updates for our community.

MCFD’s budget increased by $321. 6 million ($2,442.8 billion total). The government is clear about its goal to protect core services, support recruitment and retention, and provide supports to families who need it.

Child Welfare and Protection Investment 

• Increase of $268.4 million to child safety, family supports, and children in care services
  • This funding supports more than 12,000 children and youth who are in the care of a family or community member, in permanent care arrangements or in ministry care, and provides for sector wage increases that will support recruitment and retention.
• Funding for MCFD’s child welfare programs support:
  • Increased oversight of the child protection system
  • $245 million for the ongoing child protection support, providing a home and care for children unable to live with the parents through:
    • Extended family or community members care arrangements,
    • Foster care, or
    • Post Adoption Assistance
  • $10.4 million for wage increases to support frontline recruitment and retention
  • $12.3 million to address the step increases of frontline staff not funded through historical wage mandates

MCFD is committing to:

• Improving how child protection work is delivered through process and practice improvements but also frontline and oversight staffing levels
• The continued creation and implementation of an Associate Provincial Director of Child Welfare to provide systemic practice oversight and guidance to Designated Directors (statutory decision makers) in the service delivery areas on child safety matters
• A new Child Safety Oversight and Practice Development team to support the work of the Associate Provincial Director of Child Welfare and provide increased practice support and systemic oversight of services focusing on child safety and wellbeing for children, youth and families
• Resource stability through government’s rollout of the Shared Recovery Mandate which provided over 17% wage lifts over 3 years. These wages enable government to attract and retain resources which ensures supports and safety needed for children, youth, and families through times of family difficulty.

Children and Youth with Support Needs (CYSN) 

• $53.2 million annually to support more children and youth with an autism diagnosis, as well as families accessing medical benefits for children and youth with severe disability or complex health care needs.
  • $49.2 million to support 5,500 families, including new funding for over 2,700 more children or youth with an autism diagnosis through individualized funding.
  • $3.6 million funding for social sector wage increases
  • MCFD continues to roll out Budget 2023’s CYSN new investments with the two-year goal of:
    • Providing an additional 90 foundational program therapists for programs such as infant development, early intervention, and school-aged therapies through investment in Childhood Development Centres or similar organizations in every community in BC.
    • Doubling the FASD Key Worker program
    • Expanding agency-coordinated respite to all regions in BC

Children and Youth in Care and Alternative Care

• $821 million over three years to support children in government care or who are placed in alternative care (or out-of-care) arrangements with a family member or someone with an established relationship or cultural connection. These programs include foster care and specialized homes, independent living programs, and similar care programs supported by Indigenous Child and Family Service Agencies.
• Government prioritizes alternatives to care, including keeping children with kin, where appropriate, as they have demonstrated better outcomes for children and youth, when compared to in care arrangements.

Community Living BC

• $380 million additional funding over three years to support growth in demand for clients served by Community Living BC. Community Living BC provides supports and services to over 29,000 adults with developmental disabilities, as well as individuals who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and who need support managing daily activities.

Reducing Costs for Families 

• $410 million for a new ICBC Rebate of $110 for eligible drivers with payments anticipated in April 2025
• $318 million for BC Builds to build more middle-income rental homes faster
• $375 million to increase BC Housing rental supplements and expand eligibility criteria to help more families and seniors. With this increase, the average supplement families receive under the Rental Assistance Program will increase from $400 to $700 per month. An additional 1,600 seniors will receive rental support through the Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters (SAFER) program, with average supplements growing by 30%.
• Increasing Speculation and Vacancy Tax rates to ensure residential properties support more homes for people rather than investors

Income and Disability Assistance 

• $1.6 billion over three years to support increased demand for income, disability and supplementary assistance includes the due in part to population growth. Approximately 253,000 people in BC receive income, disability and supplementary assistance. Supplementary assistance includes the Senior’s Supplement, the Bus Pass and Transportation Supplement for persons with disabilities, supports such as the crisis supplement, counselling, school start up and health supplements for dental, diet and medical equipment and supplies.

Health Care Services

• $4.2 billion more over three years to improve the quality of health care services, enhance patient outcomes, increase capacity in the health care system, and support the growing demand for services. New funding provides additional supports across the full range of health services, including primary and acute care services, long-term care and community care services, mental health and addictions care, services through other service delivery agencies. This includes $443 million over the fiscal plan to strengthen primary care and to continue to connect people with family doctors and nurse practitioners.
• Funding for home and community care for seniors will increase from $45 million to $146 million this fiscal year and ongoing. Investments in home care improves seniors’ quality of life by enabling them to live safely in their own homes for longer and increase capacity in other parts of the health care system.

Mental Health and Addictions 

• $500 million to support and sustain addictions treatment and recovery programs established through previous budgets
  • Includes Road to Recovery, Foundry, supports for children and youth and Indigenous-led treatment, recovery and aftercare services

Education 

• $370 million for the K-12 education sector over three years: This provides additional funding to the Classroom Enhancement Fund which supports additional teachers, including special education teachers, and teacher psychologists and counsellors to support the growing number of students with special needs to ensure all students have the best opportunity for success. This also includes $17 million for First Nations Reciprocal Tuition related to students attending First Nations schools, and $30 million for independent schools under the Independent School Act and regulations.
• $4.6 billion over the next three years to build, renovate and upgrade schools and playgrounds throughout BC
• As part of previous budgets, BC has committed more than $700 million over three years to improve access to post-secondary education. Budget 2025 supports 40 new undergraduate medical seats, 162 new residency spots and 65 new nurse practitioner training seats. The remaining funding will continue to train more healthcare workers.
• Budget 2025 includes $4.7 billion in capital funding for post-secondary institutions. Major projects include $34 million for the interim space for the new medical school at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, Centre for Clean Energy and Automative Innovation at Vancouver Community College, $108 million for the West Shore Learning Centre Campus for Royal Roads University in Langford, and $57 million for the Centre for Food, Wine and Tourism at Okanagan College in Kelowna.

Transportation and Infrastructure

• $95 million over three years for critical highway and bridge maintenance across BC. This is in addition to the $207 million over three years provided in Budget 2024 for the maintenance of BC’s 47,000 kilometres of highway and more than 3,000 bridges.
• Additional $47 million over three years to support community transportation networks provided by BC Transit, to ensure reliable bus and handyDART services in 130 communities outside the Lower Mainland.
• The capital plan includes $15.9 billion in over the next three years to improve and deliver transit and transportation infrastructure. This includes major infrastructure investments to improve highway transportation along the Fraser Valley corridor and Lower Mainland Skytrain expansions like the Surrey-Langley Skytrain and Broadway Subway projects.

Preserving First Nations’ Languages and Culture 

• $45 million over three years, in new, stable funding to the First Peoples’ Cultural Council. $36 million will be dedicated to critical language preservation and revitalization to help meet growing demand for language instruction and support learners as well as jobs for expert speakers, particularly Elders and First Nations women.

Community Safety

• $90 million to resolve encampments by providing wraparound supports and housing options for those living outdoors in unsafe conditions
• $67 million for community safety initiatives to address repeat offenders, shoplifting, theft and mischief and to expand police academy training seats through the Justice Institute of BC
• $168 million for public safety and justice programs including policing, the courts, mental health rights advice, BC Coroners Service, corrections, fire inspections and victim supports