A nurse caring for a patient.
A nurse caring for a patient. Credit: CDC / Unsplash Credit: CDC / Unsplash

There is a central problem with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s economic plan. It might have worked when soldiers were returning from war in 1945, and one goal was to send women out of the workforce back to the home, but times have changed. The government’s strategy is disproportionately focused on physical infrastructure and defence, but largely neglects a foundational pillar of a modern economy: care work.

A familiar playbook for an unfamiliar moment

Canada’s current economic strategy, shaped in the aftermath of a global pandemic and amid shifting geopolitical alliances, leans heavily on historical precedent. The federal government has signalled its intent to rebuild by revisiting a familiar playbook: large-scale nation-building infrastructure projects and targeted investments in key domestic industries such as natural resources, construction, manufacturing, and, increasingly, national defence and artificial intelligence.

On paper, this approach is logical. It offers clear metrics, tangible outputs, and a proven narrative. After all, similar strategies helped fuel economic recovery following the Second World War.

But the assumption that what worked 80 years ago will work today overlooks the profound structural changes that have reshaped Canada’s economy and society.

Then and now: A different economic reality

In the post-WWII era, infrastructure spending was designed to absorb returning soldiers into the workforce. At the same time, women, who had entered paid employment in large numbers during the war, were systematically pushed out. Government-supported childcare programs were dismantled, hiring restrictions on married women were enforced, and tax policies discouraged dual-income households. By 1946, women’s labour force participation stood at just 25.3 per cent, declining further in the years that followed.

Today’s reality is fundamentally different. Women’s labour force participation reached 61.5 per cent in 2022, and approximately 70 per cent of households are dual-income. Meanwhile, Canadians face rising costs of living, housing unaffordability, mounting environmental pressures, and the demands of an aging population. Canada’s geopolitical position has also shifted—from helping shape a new global order to navigating uncertainty alongside its allies.

What hasn’t changed: Who builds and who cares

Despite these sweeping changes, some patterns persist. The gender pay gap, while narrowed, has not disappeared. Occupational segregation remains deeply entrenched: men continue to dominate industries like construction and manufacturing, while women are concentrated in service-based sectors, particularly health care and social assistance.

In effect, men are still primarily paid to build physical infrastructure, while women are paid to sustain the people who rely on it.

The critical gap in Canada’s growth strategy

This brings us to a critical omission in Canada’s current economic vision. While the government’s strategy emphasizes physical infrastructure and defence as engines of growth and sovereignty, it largely overlooks a foundational pillar of a modern economy: care work.

Ironically, the architects of the post-war economy understood the importance of care, though in a very different way. Their model depended on women providing unpaid care at home, enabling the rise of the single-income household and the expansion of the middle class. Policies like the Veterans’ Charter supported this structure through access to housing and education.

Today, that model no longer exists. Care has not disappeared—it has simply moved into the paid economy, where it remains undervalued and underinvested.

Care as nation-building infrastructure

If the goal is to build a resilient, productive, and competitive nation, investment in care infrastructure is not optional, it is essential.

Care work underpins workforce participation, supports public health, and strengthens social cohesion. It is also an area where Canada already has significant domestic capacity, with nearly 2.5 million people employed in health care and social assistance alone.

A serious commitment to care infrastructure would include:

  • Fully implementing and sustaining the $10-a-day Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system, recognizing that its success requires continued investment and long-term stability.
  • Ensuring federal health transfers are directed toward frontline staffing needs, including nurses, personal support workers, and other critical roles.
  • Increasing education funding to support both infrastructure and fair compensation, ensuring safe and effective learning environments.
  • Expanding income supports for caregivers and families to advance gender equity and enable seniors to age in place.
  • Integrating mental health services into publicly funded health care to address burnout, addiction, and early-stage mental health challenges before they escalate.

Investing in people is investing in the economy

Investing in care is not merely a social policy choice; it is a nation-building strategy.

Just as physical infrastructure enables the movement of goods and services, care infrastructure enables the full participation of people in the economy. It strengthens resilience, enhances productivity, and prepares the country to respond to future public health and economic shocks.

Yes, these investments require upfront spending. But so do pipelines, highways, and defence systems. The difference is that care infrastructure delivers returns not only in economic output, but in human capacity, well-being, and long-term societal stability.

Expanding the definition of infrastructure

If Canada is serious about building for the future, it must expand its definition of infrastructure.

Because a strong economy is not built by physical assets alone—it is sustained by the people who power it.

And those people depend on care.

Nancy Wilson, CPA

Nancy Wilson is the founder and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce (CanWCC), the only chamber in Canada dedicated to self-employed women and gender-diverse people. CanWCC fills a critical...