Unifor welcomes targeted investments in Ontario’s 2026 Budget that support workers including improved pension protections. The union stresses that more needs to be done to address rising unemployment, affordability, and strained public services, particularly the province’s under resourced health care system.

“Ontario sits at the centre of Canada’s economy and the front lines of the ongoing trade war, where workers in trade-exposed sectors and their families are feeling the impact,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne.

“The Ontario government has been leading the charge against Trump’s crushing tariffs and today more than ever families need stability. That means sustained investment, and a strong Sell Here, Build Here strategy that anchors production in Canada, strengthens domestic supply chains, and ensures workers benefit from every public dollar invested. We encourage government to stay focused on protecting jobs, strengthening domestic supply chains, and ensuring workers have the supports they need to weather economic shocks.”

Unifor welcomed measures in the budget that resists austerity and aim to support workers, including support for skills training and infrastructure spending.

The union is encouraged by the province’s new $1.1 billion investment in home and community care but notes that without addressing chronic staffing shortages and increased public funding subsidizing private, for-profit health care and long term care operators, these investments risk falling short of delivering the quality care that Ontarians need. Further, while enhanced investment in primary care doctors is a very important step, Ontario must also ensure that all the two million Ontarians who don’t have a family doctor will get one.

“Frontline workers and patients are still dealing with the fallout of years of underinvestment,” said Unifor Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi. “Long wait times, overcrowded emergency rooms, and staff burnout continue to define the system. This budget does not go far enough to address the scale of the crisis. Ontarians deserve a health care system that is properly staffed, publicly delivered, and accessible to all.”

Unifor is also calling on the province to take further action on affordability, as rising costs continue to strain workers across the province, including committing to $10-a-day child care.

The union continues to closely monitor several outstanding policy areas, including the need for expansion of Buy Ontario provisions to include heavy-duty fleet vehicles and establish minimum thresholds of Canadian content and value for all preferred goods and services, proposed changes to iGaming regulations, and updates to pension plan rules.

Unifor is pleased to see the expansion of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Fund (PBGF) reflected in the budget, which is critical to protecting the pensions of Ontario workers. This policy change ensures that all Ontario workers in defined benefit plans, including retirees, will have enhanced retirement security.

The union has expressed concern over potential plans to liberalize holiday shopping rules, which it strongly opposes due to the impact on retail workers and their families. Unifor continues to call for meaningful consultation and protections that uphold statutory holidays.

Unifor’s response builds on its recent national lobby in Ottawa, where union leaders and members called for urgent action to protect Canadian jobs.

Through Unifor’s Protect Canadian Jobs campaign, the union is advocating for measures including stronger industrial strategies, investment in domestic manufacturing, and policies that prioritize Canadian workers and supply chains.

“Governments at every level must work together to defend Canadian jobs and build a resilient economy,” Payne said. “That starts with putting workers first.”

Unifor is deeply saddened to learn of Stephen Lewis’ passing today after a tough battle with cancer.

Lewis, 88, a former politician, broadcaster and labour mediator, was a long-time friend to Unifor, Canadian Auto Workers’ (CAW) Union, and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP). Throughout his life, he made a profound and lasting impact on working people with his fiery speeches and effective activism.

“Stephen Lewis was a principled voice who never stopped fighting for working people and a better world,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne.

“Stephen stood with unions and with communities, reminding us that fairness is won through collective action and courage. His legacy will continue to guide us as we carry on the work to keep standing up for workers and building a more compassionate world.”

As leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party in the 1970s, Lewis highlighted issues such as rent control and workplace safety to the public.

At Unifor’s 2019 Constitutional Convention, he presented General Romeo Dallaire the prestigious the Nelson Mandela Award.

Lewis was a tireless and fearless advocate for those affected by the HIV-AIDS crisis in Africa. He appeared numerous times at Unifor, CAW and CEP gatherings and his two flagship organizations, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and AIDS-Free World were proudly supported by the Unifor Social Justice Fund and its predecessor funds.

Lewis also spoke at Unifor’s first Canadian Council in 2014 in Vancouver.

For his humanitarian work in Africa and the U.N., the Governor General of Canada appointed Lewis a Companion of the Order of Canada on Oct. 10, 2002.

Unifor extends our sincere condolences to Lewis’ family on the loss of a great Canadian whose lifelong commitment to social justice and human rights leaves an enduring mark in our country’s history.

Dear Minister Solomon,

We, the undersigned, are writing to express our profound concern about the proliferation of sexually explicit AI-generated content, specifically through tools like xAI’s “Grok”.

With the rise of Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), the recent use of Grok to generate non-consensual images of women and children is not merely a glitch or an issue of bad users, it is a predictable harm built into the system – a harm that will intensify if the government maintains the status quo.

While the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has taken a necessary step by expanding its investigation into X Corp and xAI, Canada’s current regulatory response fails to provide critical guardrails. While the EU, UK, and Brazil have moved toward firm enforcement and massive fines, Canada’s weakened legal framework prioritizes the interests of big tech over people’s safety.

The Current Legislative Gap

In cases of TFGBV, technology becomes a harmful tool used to control and intimidate, and AI is intensifying this form of violence. From cyberstalking to sexualized deepfakes, these tools are being used to target women, girls, 2SLBTQIA+ people, and public-facing professionals. Despite this, Canada lacks overarching legislation to regulate AI models. With privacy laws written before the rise of social media, victims have little recourse beyond reporting to police, who are often limited by jurisdictional considerations, or filing a complaint directly with the very companies facilitating the abuse.

Recommendations for Pending Legislation

As the federal government considers the Online Harms Act, Bill C-16, and mandatory age verification, Bill S-209, we urge decision-makers to include the following protections:

Robust Legislative & Criminal Frameworks

• Criminalize Non-Consensual Deepfakes: We support the swift amendment of the Criminal Code to address the creation and distribution of deepfake imagery as a criminal offence.
• Strengthen the Online Harms Act: Urgently pass comprehensive safety legislation that mandates a 24-hour takedown window for non-consensual sexual content and requires platforms to release public audits on types of abusive content their tools produce, ensuring full transparency regarding which safety protocols were triggered and where they failed.

Accountability for AI Developers & Platforms

• Mandatory Safety-by-Design: Legislation must force platforms to implement safety mechanisms before deployment, ensuring they cannot produce dangerous, violent, or non-consensual sexual content. This legislation should include algorithmic audits that allow government to review pre-release and post-release reports on safety protocols.
• Accountability and Penalties: There must be bold action and serious financial penalties for non-compliance, like the EU’s Digital Services Act, to ensure tech companies are held accountable for the tools they profit from. Mandatory audits of corporate practices and the generation of transparency reports will increase accountability.
• End “Bad User” Framing: Shift responsibility from the individual user to the platform, treating predictable system harms as a failure of the developer.

Data Privacy & Survivor Rights

• Right to Deletion: We support forthcoming privacy legislation, providing users with the legal right to demand that personal data used to train AI models be removed immediately, especially when used for sexualized content.
• Consent-Centred Frameworks: Align federal privacy laws (PIPEDA) to ensure that using personal information for AI training requires explicit, valid consent.

Support for Survivors & Advocates

• Survivor-Centric Support: Federal funding must be directed toward trauma-informed responses and specialized support for survivors navigating TFGBV.
• Support for Community Organizations, including Women’s Organizations, Doing this Work Already: Provide direct funding and support for organizations at the forefront of fighting TFGBV. Education on AI that focuses on a clear understanding of it’s function and harms is needed to ensure transparency.

The Beijing Platform for Action set a global standard for women’s safety that we cannot afford to abandon in the current digital age. It is time for Canada to transition from inquiry to decisive legislation and implement a system-wide safety framework that treats gender-based violence as a core safety issue.

We look forward to discussing how the government will support the development of a robust AI safety framework that protects all workers and their families from digital violence.

Sincerely,

Battered Women’s Support Services
Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment
Canadian Council of Muslim Women
DAWN Canada
Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada
La Fédération des femmes du Québec
Unifor Canada
WomenatthecentrE
Women’s Shelters Canada
YWCA Canada