Minister MacDonald highlights Budget 2025’s plan to build communities strong in Souris, PEI

Souris, Prince Edward Island - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Changes in the global trading system are causing massive disruptions and uncertainty for Canadians. The world has changed, and Canada’s economic strategy must change. Budget 2025: Canada Strong is our plan to make our economy stronger, more self-sufficient, and more resilient to global shocks. This budget is a plan to enable $1 trillion in investments over the next 5 years. That can increase our GDP by over 3.5% equivalent to more than $3,500 for every Canadian – delivering far more for Canadians than what’s being taken from us. This is a plan for Canada to give ourselves more than any foreign government can take away – a plan to build Canada strong.

Yesterday, the Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, met with the Board of Directors from SeaRoots Alliance during a roundtable event in Souris Prince Edward Island joined by Kent MacDonald, Member of Parliament for Cardigan. The Board of Directors in attendance included Ashley Sherbanuk, Nathan Ching, Megan Cheverie, Kendyle Peters and Keisha Rose.

SeaRoots Alliance Wellness Centre is a non-profit organization that will benefit from investments in community-driven infrastructure projects that were announced as part of Budget 2025’s Canada Strong initiatives. This project is dedicated to building an accessible and inclusive wellness centre for eastern Prince Edward Island. Deeply rooted in the community, it will provide a safe space for recreation, learning, and wellness. The centre will feature flexible multi-use spaces for after school child care, healthcare programming, and more. Support for this project highlights Canada’s commitment to building vibrant, healthy rural communities across the country.

The Build Communities Strong Fund will invest $51 billion over 10 years, followed by $3 billion per year ongoing, to revitalise 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 3 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.

The Build Communities Strong Fund will build new infrastructure to speed up work and bring down costs. 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.

This fund is part of the government’s broader nation-building mission. This includes the Major Projects Office to fast-track transformative energy, trade, and transportation projects across the country, Build Canada Homes to supercharge housing construction, and the Defence Investment Agency to use domestic resources and materials to scale up our industrial base.

The past year has revealed there are limits to Canada’s economic independence. Budget 2025 is tackling that challenge head on. It is our plan to take control and build the future we want for ourselves. It is our plan to build Canada Strong.