What happens when Canada’s care economy starts to fray?
No one notices it at first. But little by little – when things are going wrong, that’s when we suddenly realize that the safety nets that once caught us, are loosening.
Food banks start to run out of daily supplies with too many households to feed. A childcare space that once looked after hundreds of kids, closes.
A mental health waitlist that fails to help people in time. A young family struggles to care for an elderly parent with no healthcare or support around them. An entire staff at a community clinic, laid off.
- In March 2025, almost 2.2 million food bank visits were recorded, the highest number in Canadian history.
- Some 50% of parents using childcare say it’s difficult to find, up from 46% in 2023.
- 1 in 10 people wait longer than 4 months for their first counselling appointment.
We’ve been taught to see these as isolated, personal moments - that they’re not connected in any way. But they are.
They’re signs of something bigger inside Canada’s care economy, and they affect every person here from Windsor-Essex to Cape Columbia. It’s time we took a closer look.
We’ll explore:
- The Polycrisis Behind Canada’s Care Economy
- The Care Economy We All Depend On
- How Charities Hold Communities Together
- What Happens When Charitable Giving Thins Out
- What This Asks of All of Us
This article examines why Canada’s care economy is fraying, how community care in Canada depends on local charities - and what happens when charitable giving declines.
The Polycrisis Behind Canada’s Care Economy
Many Canadians have been feeling like lately the world has gone mad – and they’re right.
Things are getting harder, and there are more challenges rising – from what can sometimes feel like every possible direction.
Famed social economist Armine Yalnizyan calls it a polycrisis.
It’s what happens when several major crisis states happen at the same time. First popularized by historian Adam Tooze, the term describes a convergence of crises that occur simultaneously and amplify each other as a result.
After all, everything is connected.
In Canada, the two major forces pulling hardest right now are economic strain and demographic change.
1. The Trade and Economic Crisis:
Trade diversification has been our linchpin for 40 years, with an export-first strategy tied up in oil, forestry, gold and merchandising. With the US trade war and interrupted supply chains - our economy has fallen into a technical recession.
- Our economy is slowing: Real GDP shrank for two straight quarters in 2025–2026.
- Businesses are pulling back: Corporate investment fell again in early 2026, marking the fifth quarterly drop in a row.
- Mortgage stress is rising: Mortgage delinquencies jumped 32% nationally in Q1 2026, with even sharper increases in Ontario (52%) and British Columbia (36%).
- Households are carrying heavy debt: Canada’s household debt-to-GDP ratio is 103%, the highest of all countries in the G7.
- Our job market is stagnant: There are jobs, but few people are being hired. Only 0.4% of Canadians switched jobs in Nov 2025, in Q1 of that year job vacancies fell 18% YOY.
When trade does bounce back, it’s because of our gold exports – which act as a mask for bigger economic struggles in our heavyweight areas of forestry, mining and oil.
Bottom line - higher costs, weaker productivity, labour freezes and uncertainty in trade and investment are making it harder for households, businesses and institutions to plan with confidence.
2. The Demographic Crisis:
The Canadian population is aging, fast. More people are reaching the years where they’ll need more care, and fewer are entering the workforce to keep the economy alive.
- Fewer workers are carrying more care need: The old-age dependency ratio is projected to rise from 32% in 2023, to 48.6% by 2060.
- Fewer children are being born: Canada’s fertility rate hit a record low of 1.25 children per woman in 2024.
Bottom line - this is the start of the care gap taking shape. More Canadians will need support, while fewer workers, families and care providers will be able to carry the load.
As US labour activist Ai-jen Poo says -
“Care is the work that makes all other work possible.”
That’s why the third crisis matters so much – it’s the thread that holds all others together.
When economic strain strangles household budgets, and demographic change increases the need for support – it stops being hidden.
Canada’s care crisis has only just begun.
The Care Economy We All Depend On
What happens when costs rise and debt pressure grows?
The truth is that more people need support during these periods and fewer have extra money to give. It’s families that have less room to absorb the shock of this runaway economic and demographic pressure.
Canada’s care economy is unravelling. Thread by thread.
The carefully woven network of social services, people and organizations is thinning out. These are the social institutions that have helped Canadians live, work, recover and raise families together for decades.
Every helpful program you can think of from eldercare, childcare, and healthcare, to homecare, food security, and education operate within this sector.
In 2023, education, health and social assistance made up 13.4% of Canada’s GDP.
That’s bigger than real estate (13.2%) over a third bigger than manufacturing, twice as big as finance or construction – and three times the size of mining.
It’s also one of Canada’s main sources of paid work. Some 22% of all jobs and 37% of women’s jobs belong to the care economy.
Our care system is massive.
So – when it starts to unravel, it’s not a fringe social issue on the edge of the economy.
It is the economy.
Yet, the care crisis is ignored. It arrives during a wider push to reduce federal spending. Budget 2025 plans to save $13 billion a year by 2028-29 through a government-wide expenditure review.
Not every care program is being cut, but it shows that we’re on the wrong track.
Instead of pouring more into essential care services at a time we really need it, we’re transferring the cost to care systems, charities, communities and families who deserve stronger support.
And our local communities are on the line.
How Charities Hold Communities Together
If the care economy is the system - local charities in Canada are the hands doing the work closest to home.
These institutions employ 2.9 million people, contribute $244 billion in economic activity and account for 8.4% of our GDP.
They’re not on the outside of care.
And they’re not a lovely option if we feel like it. At no point in our storied history have they ever been ornamental. They’re how care reaches people.
Without them, the social fabric of Canadian life would come apart.
- In 2023, 1 in 5 Canadians used charitable services – 69% of them doing it for the first time.
- In 2024, 22% of charities reported a decrease in capacity over the last few years.
Charities are being asked to do more than they can manage.
This is especially true for older charities, operating for 42+ years. They report the highest level of decreased capacity – even as it increases in other places. These long-standing organizations are often the backbone of local care. When capacity is uneven like this, and drops, community needs don’t vanish.
They show up as longer waiting periods, heavier caseloads and fewer places for families to turn. And 74% of these charities face demand that is higher than they can meet.
Charitable services make our local communities stronger. They’re then able to lead stable family lives, be productive at work, and contribute to community prosperity.
When these key care systems fray – the impact isn’t purely social, it’s economic. Because of the polycrisis effect, a decline in care means serious economic and demographic trouble.
Local charities are the infrastructure that helps keep daily life moving.
They support families, help people stay well enough to work, and give communities somewhere to turn when life gets hard.
Take this away, and you’re pulling the stitches out of a quilt.
Find out more about Givium here
What Happens When Charitable Giving Thins Out
When declining charitable giving leaves charities stretched thin - communities feel it.
For families, this means juggling kids or elderly parents while working. There are fewer ways to access food, no room at shelters - and no counselling or mental health help when things are really dire.
In 2024 in Ontario, 56% of non-profits dialled back their programs, 33% increased waitlists and 12% discontinued essential care programs.
When capacity runs out, support gets harder to access. The problems don’t disappear – they move into the home. And then, they move into the workplace.
Missed hours, employee burnout and productivity loss – these are compounded because people have to care for kids, aging parents, sick or struggling loved ones around them.
The hardest hit are frontline small and mid-sized charities (20-99 employees). Some 41% say demand for their services has surged.
They feel it first because they’re close enough to the local community to see that change needs to happen. But they don’t have enough support to impact that change themselves.
This is how care unravels - not all at once - but one pulled thread at a time until the fabric holding communities together starts to wear thin.
Find out how Givium works here
What This Asks of All of Us
This is not the kind of problem ‘other people’ are going to solve.
It’s going to take all of us.
Especially, those of us who are in early or middle adulthood. It’s when we’re inside our peak caregiving years, that we’re at risk of our daily lives being impacted by the care crisis. These are the years we’re raising kids, caring for older parents and dealing with the economic forces of inflation, food and housing costs rising, and career-building.
They’re also the years we’re most likely to experience a convergence of care crises – with several of them landing at once.
Gen-Z and Millennials are the most likely generations to feel the care squeeze from both sides.
Sandwich caregiving is the term they’re using to describe the 29% of adult Canadians aged 35-44 caring for kids and older parents at the same time.
When the care economy unravels, the cost becomes personal.
We pay it in missed work, in stress, and in unpaid care. We pay it with fewer choices, family strain and - the endless exhaustion of trying to hold together what used to be held by a stronger community care system that worked.
When those top-down forces reach us, and there’s no net to help, the cost is too high.
That’s why this problem belongs to everyone – the people around us in our neighbourhoods, and the people we work for.
It’s an economic problem – one of the biggest we’ve ever faced.
It demands a collective response.
Armine Yalnizyan has some ideas on how we can help:
- Speak about care as infrastructure: Care isn’t an extra! It helps people work, raise families, recover, age safely and participate in community life.
- Name the real cost of care gaps: When care is missing, the cost shows up in lost work hours, burnout, turnover, family stress and thinner local services.
- Build stronger partnerships: Charities, businesses, governments and residents all need to be part of the same conversation. Care can’t rest on one sector’s shoulders.
- Support local charities before crisis hits: Local charitable giving is one practical way to protect the care systems closest to home.
- Invest in the systems that hold us together: Public funding matters. Private support matters. And monthly local giving matters too.
It’s time to pay attention before the fabric of care that runs through Canada wears too thin. The answer isn’t to pull harder on what remains, it’s to add new stitches, together – before more of the support people rely on comes apart.
Charitable giving won’t solve our economic or demographic crises on its own. And it won’t fix every pressure facing our care economy.
But it will help protect the care systems closest to home.
Strong communities don’t happen by accident. They’re built through collective care, shared local action and people choosing to support the organizations holding their communities together.
That’s what this moment asks of us.
To show up before a crisis hits, to reinforce the ties that bind, and to make care something communities can always count on.
Help make generosity last longer than a moment in Windsor-Essex.
FAQ
What is Canada’s care economy?
Canada’s care economy includes the services and supports that help people live, work, recover and care for one another. This includes healthcare, childcare, eldercare, homecare, food security, education and community services.
Why does charitable giving matter to Canada’s care economy?
Charitable giving helps local charities provide community care, support families, reduce pressure on public systems and keep essential services close to home.
What happens when charitable giving declines in Canada?
When charitable giving declines, local charities may have fewer resources to meet rising need. Services can shrink, waitlists can grow and more pressure can fall on families, workplaces and communities.
How can Canadians support the care economy locally?
Canadians can support the care economy by giving monthly to trusted local charities, joining community giving collectives and supporting organizations that provide care close to home.
Want to make a difference? Every contribution helps.
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