Secretary of State McLean highlights budget investments in competition, affordability, and infrastructure
November 10, 2025 Victoria, British Columbia Employment and Social Development Canada
In a rapidly changing and uncertain world, Canada’s government is focused on what we can control. We are protecting our communities and our country. We are building our economy with major projects and millions more homes. We are empowering Canadians with lower costs and new opportunities to help you get ahead. We cannot control what other nations do, but we can control what we choose to build—and we are building Canada Strong.
Today, the Honourable Stephanie McLean, Secretary of State (Seniors), was at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, British Columbia, to highlight Budget 2025’s investments to support competition, affordability and infrastructure. Under the Build Communities Strong Fund, Royal Athletic Park is eligible for up to $6 million in funding.
Building Canada Strong
To build new infrastructure to speed up work and bring down costs, the Build Communities Strong Fund will invest $51 billion over 10 years, followed by $3 billion per year ongoing, to revitalize local infrastructure—the hospitals, universities, and colleges that serve our people, the roads and bridges that move our goods, and the water and transit systems that sustain our towns. The program will include:
- A provincial and territorial stream that will provide $17.2 billion over 10 years to support infrastructure projects and priorities in housing, health care, and education. This could include transit infrastructure, colleges, universities, medical schools, and water and wastewater facilities.
- From this stream, $5 billion over three years will be dedicated specifically to a new Health Infrastructure Fund, upgrading health infrastructure such as hospitals, emergency rooms, and urgent care centres.
- A direct delivery stream that will provide $6 billion to support regionally significant projects, large building retrofits, climate adaptation, or community infrastructure. This could include clean-energy generation and storage projects, flood protection, and new community and recreational spaces.
- A community stream that will provide $27.8 billion for local roads, bridges, water systems, and community centres—getting the basics right and helping towns and cities grow.
When colleges and universities have archaic buildings, when hospitals are over capacity, and when water systems fail, productivity drops and businesses pay more. The Build Communities Strong Fund will spur economic activity, create new careers in the skilled trades, and give investors the confidence to build around reliable public infrastructure.