Ottawa’s $20,000 IVF pledge still unfulfilled

Canadians with an opinion on federal funding for in vitro fertilization (IVF) back the idea by a wide margin, but Ottawa has yet to deliver the $20,000 per-cycle program Prime Minister Mark Carney promised in the 2025 election campaign, according to a Global News report published Oct. 16, 2026.

The Liberal platform pledged up to $20,000 for one standard IVF cycle, according to the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS), which tracks the commitment. The society notes the pledge remains “subject to legislative and budgetary implementation.”

An Ipsos survey done for Fertility Matters Canada found that 46 per cent of Canadians with an opinion support a federal IVF program, Global News reported. Support is highest among people aged 18 to 34. In that group, 26 per cent said such a program would affect their own family-building plans, or those of someone close to them.

Carolynn Dubé, executive director of Fertility Matters Canada, said she has spoken with federal officials and they seem to be listening. A spokesperson for Health Minister Marjorie Michel said the ministry recognizes the financial burden of fertility treatment and “we’ll have more to say on this in due course,” according to Global News.

The wait has already outlasted a federal budget. The Canadian Press reported on Nov. 20, 2025, that fertility advocates were disappointed the budget contained no IVF money despite the campaign pledge.

Meanwhile, the cost falls on patients. Emily McIntosh, executive director of CFAS, said one IVF round costs about $20,000 and the average heterosexual couple needs three rounds to reach a successful outcome. On those figures, a full course of treatment would run near $60,000 for many couples.

Provinces have partly filled the gap. Global News reported that nine of 10 provinces offer some form of IVF program, grant or tax credit, and CFAS says Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec each fund one cycle per patient. CFAS data cited in the report show 5,466 patients in Ontario and 3,606 in Quebec received provincial IVF funding in 2025. Ontario’s Ministry of Health said 132,900 women have received publicly funded fertility support since 2015.

McIntosh said provincial programs are not enough and called for federal support, and for insurers to do more. A national program would replace what experts describe as a patchwork, in which access depends on the province where a patient lives.

For readers in their 20s and 30s, the timing matters. Statistics Canada data, covered earlier on this site, show that top-earning families are now 2.5 times more likely to have a first child than the lowest-earning, and the country’s population growth is the slowest since the First World War era. Whether the IVF promise is funded affects who can afford to start a family.

The question is also one of fiscal room. Federal health money is already tight: health ministers left their Winnipeg meeting without long-term funding this week, after Ottawa extended $1.2 billion in health funding by one year. The reports reviewed by Canada News Media do not say what the IVF program would cost Ottawa, how it would be delivered through the provinces, or when it would start.

Those details are the open questions. The Global News report did not cite an official federal source on the program’s design, and the minister’s office gave no timeline beyond “in due course.” Until Ottawa publishes one, patients planning treatment cannot count on federal help.

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Via Global News. Additional background from The Canadian Press via CTV News and CFAS.