Invest fairly in all generations: news & insights

Before we ask Millennials and Gen Z to shoulder yet another obligation of national service, we must acknowledge the many ways we already oblige them to sacrifice. We must also ask older Canadians to reciprocate by rebuilding fiscal policy to be fair across generations, and future-oriented.

Protecting universal access to healthcare in Canada will require a revenue discussion. Since younger generations already pay 20 to 40% more income taxes toward older people’s well-being than boomers did at the same age, financially secure retirees may need to make up for lost time through annual medical-care premiums collected through the tax system.

Something important shifted this federal budget season. For years, Generation Squeeze was a lone voice warning that Old Age Security absorbs more tax dollars than any other line in Ottawa’s budget, crowding out other investments and driving the deficit. Now, a growing number of commentators are sounding the same alarm. Inside government, the politics are shifting, too.

Budget 2025 sidesteps a hard truth: neither the Prime Minister who tabled it, nor the Opposition Leader who critiques it, has found the courage to ask financially secure retirees to share equally in this national moment of sacrifice.

In an era of large deficits and rising interest costs, our politicians need clearer priorities for how they spend scarce public dollars. Canada’s most expensive program, Old Age Security, has drifted from shielding retirees from poverty to padding the comfort of affluence. It needs reform.

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) proposes an increase to Canada's Old Age Security but it won’t lift most poor seniors out of poverty. Yet, it would pad the finances of retirees with six-figure incomes and add more than $3-billion to the deficit.

While leaders spar over housing and immigration, few acknowledge how boomer aging has become the decisive force behind provincial and federal deficits. Unlike other drivers of deficits, such as poor policy decisions or trade wars, this one was both predictable and preventable.

Last year, Canada and other UN member states adopted a milestone in global governance: the Declaration on Future Generations. With a federal budget around the corner, the question is clear: Will Canada live up to the promise it made at the UN — or will short-term politics win out?

Millennials and Gen Z are already conscripted into national service for their elders – no uniform required. Medical care shows why. Paying for rising costs is one of the clearest examples of the service younger generations provide.

Younger Canadians already perform a critical national service: They pay more out of pocket, and sacrifice their standard of living, to protect healthy retirements for our aging population.