In the run-up to International Intergenerational Fairness Day on 16 November, we invite partners around the world to give their country’s progress. How has Canada performed? Andrea Long explains:
In April 2024, Canada’s national budget promised for the first time to deliver Fairness for Every Generation. Political leaders are finally accepting the diagnosis that Generation Squeeze has long been sharing: hard work no longer pays off for younger Canadians the way it did for previous generations. Andrea Long explains.
Game changer
This acknowledgment is a game changer, because the first step in solving any problem is admitting you have one. Canada deserves credit for at long last shining a light on the systemic intergenerational unfairness that pervades our policies, and undermines the wellbeing of younger people.
The next steps will require much more hard work.
Current and future governments must double down on the policy reforms needed to halt a painful era of over-extraction from younger and future generations, because we can’t fix the generational unfairness that crept into our policies over decades with just one budget. Governments also must ensure accountability for delivering on this commitment over the long-term, to make sure it’s not lost in the shifting sands of electoral politics.
Report card
To shine a light on critical gaps that need filling, Gen Squeeze created Canada’s first ever Report Card on progress towards generational fairness. Our assessment shows that government has pulled up its socks from the failing grades it would have received in years past, when generational fairness wasn’t even on the radar. But current grades aren’t good enough to reverse the deteriorating wellbeing of younger and future generations, or to restore the intergenerational solidarity we need to make sure Canadians of all ages can thrive.
Our lowest grade – a D – signals that Canada isn’t investing fairly in young and old alike. Investments in retirement income benefits and medical care for the aging population consistently dwarf investments in family benefits, child care, housing and postsecondary education. This pattern persists despite financial vulnerability shifting from old to young. Cash benefits for retirees are the fastest growing line-item in Canada’s budget even though retirees enjoy the lowest poverty and highest wealth of all age groups.
Canada gets C for its efforts to avoid leaving unpaid bills to younger and future generations. Despite having the lowest net debt/GDP ratio of any G7 country, Canada faces a structural mismatch between revenue and spending as a result of poor planning for the (predictable) financial pressures that accompany population aging. This mismatch is at the heart of our $40 billion national deficit – as well as additional deficits in many provincial jurisdictions.
How has Canada done on intergenerational fairness?
Remedying this problem requires governments to speak frankly with Canadians about the trade-offs between three options: changing tax levels to raise more revenue, reducing benefits for more affluent retirees, or increasing immigration to shore up Canada’s working age population. Alas, recent debate highlights the exact opposite. Further increases in retirement income supports for rich and poor seniors alike are currently on the table, and the government just ratcheted down immigration targets – all without mention of the implications for younger Canadians.
The current government has enacted the most comprehensive housing policy in decades, yet only earns a C+ for reducing intergenerational tensions in the housing system. The reason for this poor grade is that Canada’s National Housing Strategy never mentions the word ‘wealth’. Canada continues to ignore the fact that many older homeowners have benefitted immensely from the very same rising home prices that now inflict harmful unaffordability on their kids and grandchildren.
The government gets a B for its efforts to steward the planet for younger and future generations. Despite intense opposition, the national government is still standing up for the principle that ‘if you make a mess, clean it up’ at the heart of Canada’s carbon tax.
Thanks largely to misinformation about the contribution of carbon pricing to rising living costs, support for this policy has eroded – despite growing evidence of its efficacy as a tool to achieve emissions reductions. Given the escalating climate risks and costs that younger people are poised to inherit, it’s imperative to remind Canadians that good ancestors pay for our pollution. Politicians betray our kids when they expect them to pay more dearly down the road for pollution political parties are unwilling to pay for today.
Canada earns its top grade – a B+ – for organizing the national budget around the promise of fairness for every generation. Yet even with this commitment, Canada is not among world leaders. The EU just appointed a Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness. Wales has a Commissioner for Future Generations and a Well-being of Future Generations Act. Canada needs these mechanisms too.
A single budget isn’t enough to disrupt the short-term thinking that seduces the present to colonize the future. Only by enshrining generational fairness into machinery of government will preserve what’s sacred – a healthy childhood, home and planet. An Act to Safeguard the Wellbeing of Young and Future Canadians will protect generational fairness in law, and provide an architecture for setting goals, tracking progress, and ensuring accountability.
What do young Canadians want?
Younger Canadians are clear about how they view the systems they are inheriting. Among 18-29-year-olds, 54% believe that “Previous generations are rigging the system for their benefit and making it harder for my generation.” Most also think “politicians are more interested in promoting and protecting the interests of older generations than people my age.” That’s not a legacy of which Canadians can be proud.
Along with other countries around the world, Canada recently signed on to the first ever United Nations Declaration for Future Generations. Global recognition of the urgent need to reverse the deteriorating wellbeing of younger and future generations gives Canada (and other countries) a clear window for action.
Our report card sets out the steps Canada must take to make the grade on generationally fair policies for all Canadians.
You can watch GenSqueeze’s latest video here: https://www.gensqueeze.ca/past_policy_chickens_are_coming_home_to_roost