Maclean's "big idea" features our housing surtax proposal

Maclean's Magazine has highlighted Gen Squeeze's "big idea" to tackle housing unaffordability. We propose a modest annual surtax on million-dollar homes to generate $5 billion per year to fund affordable non-profit housing. 

Dr. Paul Kershaw writes:

"We can’t maintain a housing market that locks out younger people, while others gain wealth as they sleep in homes they bought decades ago. Our surtax can help to stall this runaway train. We need all Canadians to decide that housing should be about finding a place to call home—more than we want it to be a way to get rich. Building financial security by paying off your mortgage over time is a perfectly fine savings strategy. But we shouldn’t accept what our current housing system is enabling: one-year windfalls that far surpass what a hard-working, decently paid young person can save in a decade. That model only works for one generation."

Read the full Maclean's article from the August 2022 issue here or learn more about our proposal to put a price on housing inequality. 

Our power to make change grows with the size of our network. If you support our housing solutions, please join us and share our "big idea" with others! 

(Top illustration by Pete Ryan / Maclean's)