A 2026 report from the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence highlights the growing pressure on caregivers as loved ones continue to “fill the gap” in the health-care system for those with complex needs.
The report pegs the cost of that unpaid work at $97 billion each year.
“If you’re not aware of what every family in Canada is dealing with in terms of caregiving right now, that number will jump out at you,” Liv Mendelsohn, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, said. “Caregiving is really a universal experience in Canada.”
The report found 75 per cent of respondents were facing financial hardships, while 23 per cent spend more than $1,000 a month on caregiving expenses. Of the respondents, 66 per cent reported balancing employment and caregiving responsibilities, adding physical, emotional and financial pressure on a large number of Canadians.
One in four Canadians is currently a caregiver and at least half will take on the role at some point in their lives.
“People think there’s just this big care system that once you get a diagnosis, an accident or something changes and you need care support that there is a full system and set of supports out there and that’s when people discover there really isn’t,” Mendelsohn said. “Our system depends on family, friends and neighbours to do all that.”
“Some of the saddest and most challenging stories are when people do reach that point of burnout,” Mendelsohn added. “We know that almost 80 per cent of caregivers in Canada are getting close.”
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Caregiver Laura Krefting discovered she was on the brink of a breakdown while fighting back tears at an Edmonton Seniors Centre.
“You get stretched to the point where you’re going to break at any moment,” she said. “I just stood there in that lobby crying.”
She calls herself a serial caregiver.
When she found out her mom had dementia, she stepped away from work to help her father with her mother’s care. Shortly after, her dad was diagnosed with dementia. While they eventually moved into a seniors’ residence, she still found herself putting in hours to help ensure that her family was taken care of.
Then, nine years ago, she noticed troubling changes in her husband. Doug was eventually diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia.
He’s aware of his diagnosis.
“He misses himself,” she said.
For a short time, she was a caregiver for both of her parents as well as her husband.
“When (Doug) was acutely ill, it was 24-7,” she said. “People don’t understand when you have to get up in the night and make sure someone’s not falling, when you’re in emergency again and you’re waiting 13 hours to be seen … you just get exhausted.
You sort of go, ‘Oh, life is OK, we’re settled now.’ And then boom, something happens.”
Krefting said someone gave her the contact information for Caregivers Alberta. She spoke with someone on the phone and they offered a different kind of support that Krefting said “saved her sanity.”
“It was a miracle because I was on the edge and I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
The 71-year-old now finds herself doing everything for her husband, including the tasks they once shared. She takes him to appointments and emergency care, goes on grocery and medication runs, cooks meals and takes care of the finances, to name a few.
She’s grateful that she has the resources to hire some help but knows many people don’t have that option.
It’s the support she said she needs to do the job that, for her, is not a burden.
“Doug is the love of my life. I see it as more of a vocation,” she said. “It’s just what you do.”
The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence calls for higher wages and better working conditions for care workers, including protections for migrants who work in the sector.
The report also calls for improved access to mental health supports, practical services and respite care.
“They’re saying we want to care for our loved ones out of love out of relationship, but we need a break sometimes in order to be resilient like the system is asking us to be,” Mendelsohn said. “We need to step in now and really get ahead of this crisis so that we can keep families doing the care that they want to do and that the system needs them to do it.”
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