WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Prime Minister Mark Carney has launched a plan to put Canada on a path to end homelessness within 10 years, backed by nearly $30 billion in Budget 2026 and starting with a landmark partnership with Manitoba worth more than $1 billion in new federal funding.
Announced in Winnipeg on November 6 alongside Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham, the Manitoba partnership will build more than 2,000 new supportive and transitional homes, backed by up to $800 million in federal funding, and a new Winnipeg Centre for Mental Health and Addictions, backed by more than $200 million.
The centre, the first investment from the new Integrated Supports Fund, will bring acute and outpatient mental health and addictions care together with permanent housing and coordinated support services under one roof. The province will cover half the construction cost, operate the centre and provide job training and income supports. It is expected to be fully operational in as soon as three years.
Combined with supportive and transitional housing already committed by Build Canada Homes in partnership with Manitoba, the plan means up to 2,500 new homes in Winnipeg.
The national plan is built around help, housing and health: $6.5 billion to renew and strengthen the Reaching Home initiative and support for veteran homelessness; $5.5 billion to renew the Canada Housing Benefit for direct monthly rental assistance to low-income Canadians; $10 billion through Build Canada Homes for about 25,000 supportive and transitional homes across Canada; $5 billion for the new Integrated Supports Fund; and $2 billion for a Health Infrastructure Fund to build and refurbish community mental health and addictions treatment facilities.
Since 2018, homelessness has nearly doubled across Canada, with approximately 65,000 people experiencing homelessness in 2025. In Winnipeg alone, 2,469 people were identified as experiencing homelessness on a given night in the previous year. Of those surveyed, nearly 68 per cent were experiencing chronic homelessness, approximately 80 per cent identified as Indigenous, and nine in 10 reported at least one health condition, including substance use and mental health issues.
“Homelessness is one of the hardest challenges our country faces, and no government can solve it alone,” said Carney. “With Budget 2026, we are bringing help, housing, and health care together, building on what front-line workers have taught us, to end homelessness within 10 years.”
What it means for Surrey
The Winnipeg partnership is a model, not a one-off. Carney called it “an open invitation” and said the federal government will work with every willing partner across the country. That puts the door open for British Columbia and for Surrey, where homelessness, encampments and the need for supportive housing with health care attached are live civic issues, to seek a similar partnership. No B.C. agreement has been announced.
(Source: Prime Minister of Canada news release, November 6, 2026)
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