Family news & insights

Despite historic government investments in child care, Canadian families still find themselves squeezed by rising costs, scarce supports, and services that are difficult to access. Government budgets still invest more urgently in retirees than younger Canadians — even when new child care spending is added in. Gen Squeeze is paving the way for much-needed policy change with a new solutions framework to support young families.

Nobody likes to be challenged about whether they earned all that they have. Some get defensive when I talk about winning the “lottery of timing” by becoming a homeowner years ago, or when I raise concerns that younger Canadians inherit unaffordability and climate problems in which I’m partly implicated. Breaking through this defensiveness is necessary if Canada is to work once again for young and old alike.

Today, November 16, 2023, is the first global Intergenerational Fairness Day. The urgent need to reverse the deteriorating well-being of younger and future generations stretches beyond Canada. Voices from the US, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Japan, Nigeria, and Australia as well as United Nations Foundation Next Generation Fellows have joined together to call on governments to preserve what is sacred – a healthy childhood, home, and planet – so that we can all be proud of the legacy we leave for those who follow. 

We’ll never be able to fix today’s affordability, housing, medical care, and climate crises without understanding and resolving the intergenerational tensions at their core. Here are five impacts a federal Generational Fairness Task Force will have on key decisions made at Cabinet and Treasury tables.

Trading shorter work weeks for longer working lives would improve work-life balance for younger generations and ease the massive demographic squeeze on government budgets.

Gen Squeeze founder Dr. Paul Kershaw recently joined TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin for a discussion about how life milestone timelines are changing and even disappearing. If the standard life-stage achievements for graduation, career, marriage, children, homeowning, and retirement created predictability and comfort, what happens when people don't meet those marks?

Affordability is a top concern for Alberta voters. So it is surprising that the United Conservative Party and the NDP have blind spots on this issue, especially when it comes to younger Albertans. 

2023 Federal Budget is choosing to beef up the retirement security of seniors more than the financial or climate security of those who follow them

Is the Ontario 2023 Budget really 'working for you'? We bring you seven key takeaways you won't hear in the talking points.