by Rosemarie Powell
As the 2025 federal budget ramps up spending on infrastructure and housing and reinforces a Buy Canadian mandate, ensuring Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) are built into these programs is vital.
CBAs have been gaining traction in recent years as a powerful tool that ensures government spending generates economic, social, and local benefits directly in Canadian communities. The 2025 federal budget has included a community benefits directive in the way that infrastructure projects will roll out, however its implementation, monitoring and oversight approach remains to be seen.
From the revitalization of the West Park Health Care Centre and Regent Park Phase 4&5 to the construction of the federal government led Gordie Howe Bridge project in Windsor, CBAs have been instrumental in ensuring that infrastructure and housing projects create good jobs and benefit all residents, especially those who are traditionally marginalized or underserved including Black, Indigenous and racialized youth, women and newcomers.
Private sector companies like Northcrest Developments are also understanding their importance by including community benefit plans in the redevelopment of the Downsview lands. By incorporating CBAs into federal investments, infrastructure and housing projects and public purchasing decisions, the government can build on these successes by creating good jobs and a more inclusive economy for all Canadians.
As Canada embarks on this unprecedented wave of infrastructure and housing investment, CBAs must not be treated as a box-ticking exercise but as a cornerstone of how we build, buy and develop. The 2025 federal budget’s inclusion of community benefits is a promising step—but promises alone will not deliver.
Its success will rely on few essential measures including program design that is informed by best practices, funding conditions and project criteria that set key performance indicators, early engagement at the project level, and processes to ensure accountability.
To truly transform public investment into shared prosperity, the federal government must work closely with key stakeholders including, community, labour, and industry to embed CBAs from the outset of every project and purchasing opportunity.
In the coming months, the TCBN will be sharing recommendations for how CBAs can translate federal priorities related to infrastructure, housing and purchasing into good jobs and inclusive local economic development outcomes.
Rosemarie Powell is Executive Director of the Toronto Community Benefits Network, co-founder of the Canadian Building Diversity Institute and Owner of Big on Green Property Management earning numerous awards for her leadership and advocacy for inclusive economic development.